Pieces of Eight
by EverSparrow
Summary: Captain Violet 'Coldblood' Charles is a bloodthirsty pirate, feared throughout the seven seas. But after she loses her ship and becomes stuck in Tortuga, she's forced to find a way off with her old 'friend' Captain Jack Sparrow. Little did she know that she would become mixed up in a swashbuckling adventure that would change her life forever. (now on AWE!)
1. Anchors Aweigh

A/N: I don't own the story or characters of Pirates of the Caribbean, only my original creations. I hope you enjoy the story!

Captain Violet Charles was sick and tired of Tortuga. If she was bumped into by one more drunken sailor covered in mud and smelling like a pig, she was going to explode and go on a bloodthirsty rampage through the streets. The only decent thing about this rotting island was that all the sober and mostly sober inhabitants knew who she was, and moved out of her way when she passed down the dark, dirty streets. No one wanted to tangle with Coldblood Charles.

She kept her hat low over her eyes, casting a shadow across her features as she sat in a corner of the crowded tavern. Her lip curled in disgust at the rowdy men and women around her, and she did her best to keep her eyes on the tankard of rum she was drinking. She wasn't in the mood for a confrontation right now. Someone crying about their brother that she'd probably killed, someone wanting to join her crew. Not that she had much of a crew right now anyway. Or a ship.

Suddenly, as she lifted her drink, she spotted three men pushing their way through the crowd to a secluded corner of the tavern. She jolted upright, nearly spilling her drink as she recognized the man in front. Scowling, she whispered his name under her breath: _Jack Sparrow._ He and an older man took a seat in their shadowy alcove while the younger one, barely more than a boy, leaned against the doorway keeping watch. She leaned forward, eager to listen in on their conversation.

"Now what's the nature of this venture of yours?" asked the older of the two men.

Quietly, the men leaned forward, and Violet strained to hear them.

"I'm going after the Black Pearl," Jack said, and both Violet and the other man straightens as if he'd been shot.

"Say again?"

"I'm going after the Black Pearl. I know where it's going to be, and I'm going to take it," whispered Jack, and the older man spluttered.

"Jack, it's a fool's errand. You know better than me the tales of the Black Pearl."

"That's why I know what Barbossa is up to. All I need is a crew," Jack said conspiratorially.

"From what I hear tell of Captain Barbossa, he's not a man to suffer fools, nor strike a bargain with one," the other man said again, shaking his head.

"Well, then I'd say it's a very good thing I'm not a fool then, eh?"

"Prove me wrong. What makes ye think Barbossa will give up his ship to you?" demanded the other man, causing Jack to lean in again across the table.

"Let's just say it's a matter of leverage, eh?"

Jack smiled, and nodded dramatically over in the young man by the door's direction until the other man finally catches on.

"The kid?" asked the other man, confused.

"That is the child of Bootstrap Bill Turner. His only child, savvy?" Jack said, and Violet pushed her hat up a bit further in order to stare at the boy.

"Is he, now? Leverage, says you. I think I feel a change in the wind, says I. I'll find us a crew. There's bound to be some sailors on this rock crazy as you," said Gibbs, smiling broadly.

This could be her chance to finally get off this cursed island, and maybe even win back her ship from the man she'd been stupid enough to make a bet with. And it didn't hurt that where Jack Sparrow went, there was adventure to be had.

* * *

Violet stood at the end of the line of several bedraggled sailors, her hat low over her eyes to prevent Jack from recognizing her. It had taken her a great deal of hassle to find the old man Jack was talking to, who was apparently named Gibbs, and to get a spot on the crew without having him recognize her.

Gibbs, Jack, and Bootstrap's son walked down the line, and the Captain looked more and more displeased with every step.

"Feast your eyes, Captain. All of them, faithful hands before the mast, every man worth his salt. And crazy to boot," assured Gibbs.

"So this is your able-bodied crew?" asked the boy, disbelieving, and Violet rolled her eyes. The boy had a thing or two to learn about piracy. How did he end up with someone like Jack?

"You, sailor!" Jack said, stopping in front of an older man with a parrot on his shoulder.

"Cotton, sir," supplied Gibbs.

"Mr. Cotton, do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death? Mr. Cotton! Answer, man!" Jack yelled, and Violet almost laughed from the annoyance on his face.

"He's a mute sir. Poor devil had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot to talk for him. No one's yet figured how," said Gibbs.

"Mr. Cotton's- parrot. Same question," demanded Jack.

"Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!" screeched the parrot.

"Mostly, we figure that means yes," said Gibbs sympathetically.

"Of course it does," decided Jack. "Satisfied?" He asked the boy, who did not seem anything of the sort.

"Well, you've proved they're mad," the boy said, obviously confused.

Jack continued down the line, eyeing each pirate until he came to the end and right in front of Violet. Slowly, he reached out towards her hat and pulled it from her head, causing her hair to spill out onto her shoulders and revealing her face. He jolted and took a step back, surprise evident on his face.

"Captain Charles," he breathed, quickly regaining his charismatic self. "What brings you to my humble crew? Last I saw you, you were threatening to kill me."

"Hello to you too, Captain Sparrow. As of this moment, I am- well, currently without a ship. And seeing as you happen to have one, and I don't, I suppose I can refrain from killing you until another time. Although, this is not the famous _Black Pearl_ that I was promised a ride on," Violet said, smirking.

"You're a captain?" asked the boy, still confused.

"More so then your friend Jack, there. And who might you be?" she said snidely, and Jack frowned.

"What makes you think I'll be willing to let you on?" Jack said. "And this is William Turner, in search of his bonny lass who happens to be with my beloved ship."

"C'mon, Jack, a favor for an old friend?" she lowered her eyelashes and stared up at Jack, who groaned and threw her hat back at her.

"Just to be clear, love, I'm the Captain on this particular voyage, and you signed on to be part of me crew," he said as she slipped her hat back onto her head.

"That's right. I'm just part of the crew," she said submissively, smiling brightly at him. Jack, looking slightly uncomfortable, quickly turned back to the rest of the crew and raised a ringed hand.

"All right, you scurvy dogs, anchors aweigh!" he shouted, and the crew cheered, heading towards the ship.

"No, no, no, no, no, it's frightful bad luck to bring a woman aboard, sir," Gibbs said to Jack, but the Captain just shook his head, looking wearily at Violet as she sauntered over to join the crew.

"It'd be far worse not to have her," he said, sighing.

* * *

By the time they were well and truly out at sea, dark clouds had already started brewing in the sky. By evening, the storm was raging, and every pirate on deck was soaked. Jack was at the wheel, and had successfully avoided her since they started their voyage, which Violet was fine with. She gripped the railing and stared out at the tumultuous water, her eyes bright and excited.

She hated the rain, always had, but it came with the sea and she loved the sea more than anything else in her life. She raked her fingers through her blonde hair, which was plastered against her neck, and took off her hat to shake out the water that was pooling in it.

"How can we sail to an island that nobody can find with a compass that doesn't work?" asked Will from across the ship, and Violet turned at his voice. He wasn't easy to read, this Will, not quite a pirate but not really _not_ one, either.

"Aye, the compass doesn't point north, but we're not trying to find north, are we?" said Gibbs, turning to Jack. "We should drop canvas, sir."

"She can hold a bit longer," the Captain said in a quiet voice, quite unlike the flippant manner Violet had gotten used to from him.

"What's in your head that's put you in such a fine mood, Captain?" asked Gibbs, and Jack's eyes lit up so brightly that Violet could see their glint through the pelting rain.

"We're catching up."

* * *

With Jack's permission, the crew retreated below decks to the hammocks that awaited them there, groaning about wet and aching muscles. Violet, however, stayed out in the rain, watching Jack Sparrow at the wheel. He couldn't avoid her forever.

She walked up to him, watching as he kept his eyes on the sea in front of him.

"Why are you here on me ship?" he asked, before she could say anything. Now he was staring at her, and she tried to bite back her attraction to him.

He really was quite handsome, she couldn't lie, but Jack Sparrow was not a good person to be attracted to.

"I told you already. I needed to get off of Tortuga, and my ship's been, well, compromised. It's nothing to do with you," she said nonchalantly, and Jack rolled his eyes, turning back to the wheel.

"Of course it's to do with me, love. You and I were bound to meet up again. It was only a matter of time," he smirked, and now Violet rolled her eyes.

"So you're trying to get your ship back," she said, leaning against the railing in front of the wheel. The rain had calmed down into a steady but light downpour, the dark clouds finally lightening.

"Aye. And I'm going to get it, too. Why, you want to come aboard once I do, love? I did promise you a ride," he noted innocently, and Violet shook her head vigorously.

"In your dreams, Sparrow," she said, and he laughed, the sound disappearing into the rushing waves.

"You know, Violet, I've always wondered why I didn't recruit you to help me get the Pearl meself. The stories I hear about you keep getting wilder and wilder, love," he said, staring back at her with new intensity. "Did you really massacre an entire merchant ship just to get their chest of savings?"

Violet laughed to herself, breaking his gaze and staring out at the sea. She had killed her fair share of people in her career, but that particular incident wasn't true. However, there was no reason why Jack had to know that.

"Of course," she said, eyes flashing, "They don't call me Coldblood for nothing."

"Aye, you're right," Jack said, a familiar glint in his eye.

"So, the boys' Turner's?" Violet asked, and Jack raised an eyebrow at her.

"How did you- Ah, the Faithful Bride," Jack said sagely, referring to the tavern Violet had first spotted him at. "And here I was thinking no one heard my clever plan."

"You haven't changed at all," Violet said, leaning back against the railing. And it was true- he hadn't. He was the same crazy pirate that she had met at sea three years ago, if a bit more determined now.

"You have, love," he said, gripping the wheel a little tighter as a large gust of wind rocked the ship, "A little less bloodthirsty."

"Maybe I have," she said, staring at him, and he flashed her a smile that sparkled with his gold teeth. "Maybe I have."


	2. Captain Coldblood

Will Turner stared down at the water below the ship, which was strewn with pieces from multiple ghastly shipwrecks. Masts and jagged wood planks alike floated beneath him, and he couldn't shake the eerie feeling the whole, misty scene brought upon him. All around him, the crew stared grimly down at the water, including the Captain himself, when he wasn't fiddling around with that awful compass.

In front of him, at the bow of the ship, Captain Charles leaned over the edge of the ship, separated from the rest of the crew. He didn't know what to make of this so-called Captain, but he hadn't seen Jack look even remotely as rattled as he did when he first laid eyes on her back at the dock.

"Puts a chill in the bones how many honest sailors have been claimed by this passage," came a voice from beside him, and he turned to see Gibbs standing next to him.

"Who is she?" Will asked, nodding over at Captain Charles.

"Ah, you want to know about Captain Coldblood," Gibbs said, nodding as he stared off at Charles.

"Coldblood?" Will asked, immediately intrigued.

"Aye. She got that nickname because she leaves no survivors. Very mysterious, she is. Last any of us heard, she had stolen one of the fastest ships off the British navy and renamed it the Assassin. Don't know what's become of it now, though," mused Gibbs, and Will shook his head incredulously.

"And how does she know Jack?" Will asked.

"That I don't know," replied Gibbs, his eyes out on the sea.

The girl looked like a pirate, wearing the same sort of flowy white top and trousers that Jack had, and a darker version of his hat on her head. Blonde curls tumbled down her shoulders, and her black boots ended just below her knees. The sword hung at her hips, too, looked equally menacing from its sheath. But it was her eyes that caught Will's gaze, blue-green and full of turmoil like the sea beneath them.

His heart clenched as he watched her, the expression on her face echoing the longing he had seen in Elizabeth's face so often. He wanted her back. He _needed_ her back.

"She's much like Jack, now that I think of it," Gibbs said, and Will turned back to him.

"What do you mean?" he asked carefully, and Gibbs sighed.

"He used to be captain of the Black Pearl, you know," Gibbs said, and Will started in shock.

"What? He failed to mention that," muttered Will, and he shifted his gaze over to Jack, who was still staring at that cursed compass.

"Well, he plays things closer to the vest now. And a hard-learned lesson it was. See, three days out on the venture the first mate comes to him and says everything's an equal share. That should mean the location of the treasure, too, so Jack gives up the bearings. That night there was a mutiny. They marooned Jack on an island and left him to die but not before he'd gone mad with the heat," said Gibbs, his voice taking on a darker tone.

"Ah. So that's the reason for all the-" Will waved his arms and staggered in his best impression of Jack.

"Reason's got nothing to do with it. Now Will, when a man is marooned he is given a pistol with a single shot, one shot. Well it won't do much good hunting or to be rescued. But after three weeks of a starvin' belly and thirst, that pistol will start to look real friendly. But Jack? He escaped the island, and he still has that one shot. Oh, but he won't use it, though, save for one man. His mutinous first mate."

"Barbossa," concluded Will.

"Aye," Gibbs replied in an ominous tone.

"How did Jack get off the island?" Will asked, intrigued. There was much yet to learn about this Jack Sparrow.

"Well, I'll tell ye. He waded out into the shallows and there he waited three days and three nights till all manner of sea creature came and acclimated to his presence. And on the fourth morning, he roped himself a couple of sea turtles, lashed 'em together and made a raft," Gibbs said, a glint in his eye.

"He roped a couple of sea turtles?" Will asked, disbelieving. He wasn't as dumb as Jack and the crew often made him out to be.

"Aye, sea turtles," confirmed Gibbs.

"What did he use for rope?" Will said, pressing the matter further.

"Human hair. From my back," said a voice from behind him, and he jumped to see Jack Sparrow leering down at him. Will wrinkled his nose in disgust, although he wouldn't put it past the man to do something so disgusting.

"Let go of the anchor!" Jack crooned, and almost immediately Captain Coldblood was up and by his side.

* * *

Violet made her way over to Jack as the crew echoed his call:

"Let go of the anchor, sir!"

"Are we at the _Pearl_?" Violet asked, and Jack shook his head, coming over to Will.

"Young Mr. Turner and I are to go ashore," he said, and Will looked obviously uncomfortable at the notion.

"I'm coming with you," Violet said, craving adventure. She had spent too much time on this ship filled to the brim with idiots already.

"You most certainly are not," Jack said, strutting off in a random direction, as usual.

"I most certainly am," replied Violet, following him. "There's no way you can take on Barbossa and his whole crew, let alone while looking after the boy."

"I don't need to be looked after," whined Will, in the petulant way that meant to Violet that he very much did need to be looked after.

"That's right," said Jack. "And I don't think we need an unstable killer on our hands, so thanks so much, love, but your services will not be required."

"You can't stop me," said Violet, and put a hand on the cutlass that hung from a belt slung across her hips. "Has anyone ever been able to before?" Jack groaned loudly and put a hand on his forehead in exasperation.

"She's right," he said, finally, and waved a hand submissively. "Fine, come ashore, but don't mess up our plan."

"Right, I'm sure you've a great plan," she said sarcastically, walking over to join them as they prepared to leave the ship.

"Captain! Er- Captains! What if the worst should happen?" asked Gibbs, and Jack shot Violet a glance. She nodded, and Jack echoed the movement.

"Keep to the code," he said, and Gibbs nodded solemnly.

"Aye. Keep to the code," he confirmed.

* * *

Violet looked around as they entered the dark cave, the damp, musty air pressing down on her as they made their way to the main cavern. She sat on the far end of the rowboat by Turner, who looked like he was about to throw up as they drifted past a skeleton with a sword through it.

"Scared, Turner?" she taunted, and he shook himself a little as he turned to her.

"Of course not," he said, trying to look as defiant as possible. "So, what code is Gibbs to keep to if the worst should happen?" he added in a weak attempt to change the subject.

"Pirate's-"

"Pirate's Code," Violet said, flashing Jack a smile as she interrupted him. "Any man that falls behind is left behind." Jack turned over his shoulder to glare at her from where he was rowing the boat, and she smiled again.

"No heroes amongst thieves, eh?" Will said cynically, and Violet rolled her eyes. This boy was going to be eaten alive once they found Barbossa.

"You know, for having such a bleak outlook on pirates, you're well on your way to becoming one," Jack added, and Will turned around, furious. "Sprung a man from jail, commandeered a ship of the Fleet, sailed with a buccaneer crew out of Tortuga…"

Jack stopped as glinting golden light caught their eyes, and the three looked down at the water below them. Underneath them, thousands of coins shone their sparkling lights all over the caves, and Violet could see them reflecting in Will's eyes as he stared hungrily down at the water.

"And you're completely obsessed with treasure," Jack finished, and Will jerked up again as they neared land. Violet leaned over and helped Will pull the boat ashore, and Jack jumped out, surveying the area around them.

"That's not true. I am not obsessed with treasure," Will whined as they started to walk up a small incline, and Violet tried to stifle a laugh. The two of them argued like schoolboys.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but did I hear correctly? Did Captain Jack Sparrow find himself in jail?" she laughed, and Jack's shoulders stiffened.

"If it wasn't for William here, I wouldn't 'ave," he complained, and Will smiled.

"It's not my fault he's a dirty cheater," Will said, and she laughed, the sound ringing through the cave.

"Ah, William, Jack is the worst cheater you'll find on these seas," she said, winking, and Will grinned at her.

"Quiet," Jack said suddenly, and Violet folded her arms across her chest.

"Don't be like that, Jack, I was only telling the truth," she said with fake sweetness, but Jack held up a hand, urgently this time, and she walked forward to see a large cave opening.

She almost fell over in shock, for there he was- Captain Barbossa and his crew, surrounded by one of the largest hauls of treasure she'd seen in a long time. Barbossa stood by a huge stone chest upon a mound of treasure, and there, behind him, Violet saw a young woman being dragged to the top, wearing a red dress that looked very pirate-like.

"Does she happen to be said bonny lass?" Violet whispered, and Will stared out at the scene in front of him, panting raggedly.

"Elizabeth," he breathed.

"For ten years we've been tested and tried, and each man jack of you here has proved his mettle a hundred times over and a hundred times again!" Barbossa called, silencing Violet from further comment, and his crew cheered. Barbossa looked more haggard than Violet remembered him being, although that could have just come with being a pirate on these seas.

"Punished, we were. The lot of us- disproportionate to our crimes! Here it is-" Barbossa said as he kicked the lid off of the chest, and Violet sucked in a breath as it revealed thousands of golden coins and a stone knife. "-the cursed treasure of Cortes himself. Every last piece that went astray, we have returned, save for this!"

The girl - Elizabeth - was next to Barbossa now, and he jabbed a finger at the medallion that hung around her neck.

"Jack!" Will said, scrambling for the opening, but Jack quickly restrained him, pulling him back down.

"Not yet. We wait for the opportune moment," he said, and Violet watched as he began to walk back to where their boat was tied up.

"When's that? When it's of greatest profit to you?" demanded Will as he ran after Jack, finally catching up to him back by the boat.

"May I ask you something? Have I ever given you reason not to trust me? Do us a favor, I know it's difficult for you, but please, stay here, and try not to do anything… stupid," Jack said, exasperated. "Violet, stay with the boy, won't you, love?"

"Not a chance," Violet scoffed, and she sauntered off after Jack, shooting Will an apologetic glance as they made their way into the cavern.

She followed Jack down a twisting passage, listening intently to Barbossa as he babbled about blood and sacrifice and something or other.

"Are they going to kill her?" Violet asked, and when Jack didn't reply, added: "The boy won't like that at all."

"A right genius, you are," Jack quipped as they came around a cave wall. He held up a hand and waited, waited, until-

"Jack, look out!" Violet shouted as scuffling feet behind her alerted an intruder's presence, but it was too late: Will Turner stood behind them, armed with an oar, and proceeded to clock Jack over the head with it.

"Sorry, Jack," he said, and then turned to Violet. She was pulling her cutlass out when the boy hit her, too, and the last thing she saw was the cold, wet cavern floor of the Isla de Muerta, William Turner's voice ringing above her.


	3. Another Time, Another Sea

_Three Years Earlier_

Violet Charles hated the brig. This one, in particular, was especially awful, and she knew from experience. She'd been in many a cell before, but none quite as terrible as this one.

She had to stand in the corner of the damp, musty cell because the floor was completely flooded with ice-cold seawater. Apart from the smell, she could barely make out anything in the near-complete darkness, with the exception of the strange man in the corner opposite her.

Violet glared down at her boots as she raised one to shake it out, the wrinkled leather making her cringe. These boots were her pride and joy, always had been. The first thing she'd bought with stolen money. Pirate money.

"Love, if you can't handle a bit of salt water on yer boots, you're not cut out for the pirate life," came a lilting, flippant voice from across the cell, and she quickly stomped her boot back down into the water.

"Believe me, I've had far worse than water on these," she said in a cold voice, and her cellmate laughed dryly.

"I'm sure you have, if you're in here," he said, and she turned to look at him. He was slumped in the corner, hat low over his eyes, but the unmistakable look of a pirate about him. Long brown hair was visible from beneath the hat, and his hands, which were crossed across his chest, were adorned with golden rings.

"Who are you?" she asked curiously, and the man slowly raised his hat brim, revealing deep brown eyes and lids smudged with black.

"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?" With the words, the man stood up, and grinned at her, despite the fact that he was dripping wet.

The words rang a bell in Violet's mind. She'd heard of this pirate, this Sparrow, before. He was clever and had cheated his way out of death many a time. But as far as Violet knew, he hadn't been heard from in five years or so.

"Are you really?" she asked, stepping closer to him. "Where have you been the past five years?"

"Around," he said, shrugging. "You can't expect a man to stay in one place, can you, love?"

"Well I wouldn't expect a man to, but you-" she gestured at him, and he frowned at her, taken aback.

"That was bold, love. Who are you to make such comments?" he said, staring intently at her.

"Violet Charles," she said simply, holding out a hand. He stared at it for a few moments before promptly grabbing it and shaking it once.

"Charles, eh? Are you the one they call Coldblood?" he asked, and Violet grinned. She had gotten the nickname when she first took to the seas, sailing with buccaneer crews wherever they would take her. She was a ruthless killer when the moment came, leaving no one who stood in her way alive.

"Aye," she confirmed, and Jack nodded.

"So not a Captain, then, are we?" he asked mockingly, but she just shook her head, staring out beyond the bars of their cell.

"Not yet," she said, just a hint of sadness in her tone. It was her dream, though, to have a ship that she could do whatever she wanted with, take wherever she pleased. To address herself as Captain- she'd sell her soul to the sea for that.

"Well," Jack drawled, leaning against the wall, "Would you like to change that?" Violet swung her gaze back to his, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously, and he grinned again, a gleam in his eyes.

"This is a rather nice ship that we're stuck in, wouldn't you say?" he asked innocently, and suddenly her heart began to pound the way it always did when adventure was close at hand.

"I'd say so," she replied cautiously as the Captain's grin began to look a little unstable.

"And I don't know about you, but I think I've had enough of this cell," he added, walking towards her until he was directly in front of her. She wanted to shrink back, but she forced herself to stand up straight, staring right into his eyes.

"I agree wholeheartedly," she said quietly, and Jack leaned closer to her for just a moment before turning around on his heel to inspect the bars.

"Then I'd say it's time we pay our respects to the good captain of this ship and be on our way. What do you say to that, Coldblood?"

Violet grinned, and suddenly she knew that something was about to happen, something that would change her life forever, for better or for worse.

* * *

"This is taking too long," Violet complained as Jack turned the metal rod around and around in the keyhole of the cell door. He looked comical, knee-deep in water, leaning against the bars with his face pressed to them and one arm reaching outside to reach the lock.

"Well, love, perhaps you'd like to be the one to do this," he said through gritted teeth, and Violet sighed before walking over to him and holding out a hand.

"Alright," she said, and Jack stopped to look up at her.

"What do you mean, alright?" he asked, no mad grin on his face this time.

"I gave you a chance to try it, let you feel special and important, and now I want to get out of here, so I'll be taking over," she said, smiling sweetly, and Jack glared at her.

"I don't think s-" Jack began, but Violet snaked a hand through the bars and grabbed the rod out of his hand.

"Give me a minute, won't you? Go play in the water over there," she said, gesturing to a corner, and Jack gave her a dark stare before moving back so she could take a turn at the lock.

Violet scraped the rod against the bars a few times, narrowing the edge to better fit into the keyhole. Then, she slid it into the lock and gently pressed down as she moved it through the mechanism, feeling each pin push up, one by one. After she'd pressed each pin, she continued to put pressure on the rod and slowly turned the rod to the right.

Suddenly there was a loud click- and both the rod and the lock fell to the ground in front of their cell.

"What- How-" Jack began, but Violet held up a hand to silence him and pushed the door open gently.

"Speechless, are we, Captain?" she whispered as they walked quietly up to the stairwell that led up to the main deck.

"Shut up, won't you, love?" he hissed, and she grinned to herself. Slowly, they made their to the stairway and slowly ascended.

"Any plan once we get up there?" she asked as the first rays of daylight hit their skin.

"Not really," said Jack, and she sighed, a hand on her cutlass, which was thankfully not taken away by the soldiers once they'd apprehended her.

"Ready?" she asked, and Jack nodded. Together, they ran the rest of the way up to the deck and into the sunlight.

Violet was almost blinded by the bright glare of the sun, but she quickly looked got her bearings and looked around. Stunned soldiers stood all around them, seemingly paralyzed, before one of them shouted,

"Don't let the prisoners escape!"

Suddenly, a flurry of action erupted, and Violet unsheathed her cutlass with a sharp, satisfying sound. The familiar weight in her hand blocked out everything else, and it was just her and the sword and the sea.

A man came at her from her right, and she parried his blow, the swords clashing loudly. She ducked his next swipe and managed to use the opportunity to slash across his vest. Blood bloomed across his uniform but she didn't stop, just turned on the next man that came at her.

She stabbed and slashed, again and again, everything mute but for the clashing of metal. A sharp pain bit her right arm and she resisted the urge to grab it, jabbing her sword into the man who'd managed to injure her.

Suddenly, she felt a pressure on her back and whipped around, ready to strike, but it was only Jack, who had been backed up against her by his own opponent, another white-wigged soldier.

"How did they escape?" called a voice from across the deck, and Violet recognized the tall man in the feathered hat as the captain of the ship. He'd been the one to lock her up in the first place, the lucky one who'd grabbed her arm just as she was about to escape.

"We don't know, sir," replied a shorter man as a new wave of soldiers came down upon them, and Violet tuned out the captain once again.

"You're good at this, love," said Jack from behind her as she flipped the sword out of her current opponent's hand and into her own.

"I know," she replied, grunting as she slid away from Jack, narrowly missing a sword at her neck.

"How are they winning?" bellowed the captain, and she heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed, and knew the captain was joining the fray. "Men! Pistols!"

"Pistols?" Violet complained, shaking her head. "Now that's cheating."

"We'd better finish this quickly," sang Jack from beside her, and she whipped her sword around her in a circle, taking out at least five men.

The first shot rang out, and whizzed past her, so close that she could feel the wind on her skin from the bullet's flight. She traced the shot to the soldier holding a gun a few feet away from her and stabbed him through the heart, but not before he fired again, sending a shot grazing past her cheek and leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

She grabbed the pistol from his hand and turned to face the soldiers, firing bullet after bullet until all the soldiers save for the captain were lying cold on the deck.

Jack looked up at her from across the deck and grinned, but she had on a cold smile that would make even the strongest man cower in fear.

The captain of the ship dropped his weapons and held up his hands in defeat, falling to his knees on the deck as both Violet's pistol and Jack's sword were trained on him.

"Please- I surrender!" he said, and Violet looked at Jack, who shrugged.

"Well, I suppose someone needs to tell the story of how Captain Coldblood came to be," Jack said, picking up the man's gun and throwing it overboard into the ocean below. "And we won't be needing that."

"Stand up," Violet said, and she walked the captain over to the rowboat that was stored on the ship. "Now get in," she demanded, and the man obeyed, quickly getting into the boat as Violet and Jack began to lower it into the ocean.

"Now, good sir, you will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!" he called as the man's boat his the waves below, and the man picked up the oars and began to row away as fast as he could.

"And Violet Coldblood Charles!" she called after him, and then she was laughing, and so was Jack, two of the worst pirates there ever were, covered in blood and unable to contain themselves.

"Well, Captain," Jack asked when he they had finally composed themselves, "Where to?"

"Wait, wait. Are you saying-" Violet stopped at Jack's gold-toothed grin, and looked around at the ship. It was strewn with bodies and blood but beneath it all, it was a ship, and it was hers. And she was- she could be-

"You did get us out of that cell, love. I think this ship belongs to you, and I will humbly serve you as your first mate, savvy? I suppose if these men object-" he gestured to the bodies of soldiers on the ship, "then I might call off your Captainship, but they seem pretty quiet," he added. Violet laughed and walked over to the center of the ship by the mast.

"Well, if that's the case, then get to work, you lazy dog! We've got lots to do if we're planning on manning this ship with but two pirates until we can get our hands on a suitable crew!" she shouted, and Jack grinned at her, wild and mad-looking once again.

"Aye aye, Captain," he said, taking off his hat and handing it to her.

Grinning wickedly, she slid it over her hair, and from that moment on, every pirate on the seven seas feared Captain Coldblood Charles.


	4. Apples and Pistols

"Violet. Violet. Wake up."

Violet opened her eyes, the voice becoming clearer with every second. The world was too dark. Too bright. Too loud. Too quiet. Where was she, anyway?

Then she remembered.

The Isla de Muerta. William Turner. Elizabeth. And- Jack Sparrow.

He was standing above her, a bit dazed, clutching the oar that Will Turner had smacked them over the head with. Slowly, Violet got to her feet, a bit disoriented in the dark of the cave. She registered noise coming from all around her but wasn't really sure what it was.

"Come on, love, we have to make sure Turner didn't mess everything up," Jack said, and started to stagger over to the cave that was filled with treasure. Violet followed, the shine of gold distracting her, and only noticed the other people there when it was too late.

"You!" a pirate screamed, and pointed an accusing finger at Jack. He was dirty and seemed to have only one real eye, and Violet wondered what the other, fake eye was made of.

Jack turned behind him to look at her, and pointed a finger at her.

"Her?" he asked questioningly, and the pirate shook his head, another equally dirty man joining him.

"No, not her, you!" said the new man, who fortunately had both eyes. "You're supposed to be dead!"

Violet stared at Jack, who looked slightly confused, and made a face of mock outrage.

"Yes, he's supposed to be dead!" she said, and the two pirates looked at her, becoming more and more confused with every minute.

"Am I not?" Jack said, in that drunken manner of his.

The pirates quickly drew their pistols, pointing them at Jack, and Violet unhooked her own pistol and pointed it at him, too.

"Love, are you kidding?" Jack groaned, and Violet shrugged.

"Pirate," she said matter-of-factly, and Jack glared at her.

"Is that Captain Coldblood?" asked the one-eyed pirate suddenly, and all the heads of the pirates swiveled to stare at her.

"Aye, it is!" one called, and the rest of them nodded in agreement.

"Let's kill her too! If she's with Sparrow, Barbossa will want her dead!" a huge, burly pirate said, and they all cheered.

Quickly, Violet smiled slightly, and turned her pistol away from Jack and onto the one-eyed man, which caused the men to tense and hold their pistols tighter.

"Perleley…" Jack suddenly called, waving his hands around as he tried to remember something. "Perleleyloo- Parlene. Parsnip. Parsley. Part… Partner, partner-"

"Parley?" asked the one-eyed pirate, and Jack nodded emphatically.

"That's the one! Parley! Parley!" Violet rolled her eyes at his exclamations and slowly lowered her pistol along with the other pirates. The second, two-eyed pirate glared at Jack, reluctant to lower his weapon.

"Parley! Damn to the depths whatever muttonhead thought up parley!" the pirate spat, enraged, and Violet laughed.

"That would be the French," replied Jack in a serious tone, his eyes laughing.

* * *

The pirates led Jack and Violet into the cave at gunpoint, and the one-eyed pirate held Violet's pistol from when he'd snatched it earlier.

Jack leaned against the oar as the pirates began to part, and whispered to Violet:

"I don't know if you've met Barbossa, but you're not going to like him."

She turned to him, smiling sweetly, and whispered back:

"Oh, I've met him. And I like anyone who doesn't like you."

"How the blazes did you get off that island?" demanded a loud, heavily accented voice, and Jack and Violet turned to see Captain Hector Barbossa striding towards them, a disbelieving expression on his face.

"When you marooned me on that God-forsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow," crooned Jack, grinning his golden smile.

"Ah, well, I won't be making that mistake again. Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow? Kill him," ordered Barbossa, and the pirates eagerly hold up their pistols, aim, fingers on the triggers and-

"Wait!" Violet called, and the pirates turned to her, lowering their guns slightly. Barbossa, who had begun to walk away, turned around to face her.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Captain Charles," sneered Barbossa, and Violet put her hands on her hips, jutting her chin out slightly.

"Miss me, Captain?" she asked, and Barbossa smirked at her.

"If I might interject-" Jack cut in, but Violet elbowed him, hard, and he fell silent with a sharp wincing sound.

"What brings you to Isla de Muerta? And in the company of Sparrow, no less. And I liked you too, Charles," said Barbossa, stepping closer to her.

"Sparrow is a temporary acquaintance," she said carefully, and Barbossa chuckled slowly.

"Well, I'm afraid any friend of Sparrow's is no friend of mine, so, unfortunately, men, we are going to have to kill dear Charles here too," Barbossa said, and the men brought up their weapons once again, and prepared to shoot-

"The girl's blood didn't work, did it?" asked Jack quietly, and Barbossa tensed.

"Hold your fire," Barbossa said to his crew, and the two-eyed pirate from before glared and rolled his eyes, obviously exasperated.

"You know whose blood we need," continued Barbossa, and Violet turned to Jack, knowing exactly what he was planning on doing.

"Jack, no," she hissed at him, but Jack refused to look at her. "You'd betray Will like that? After he got you out of prison?"

"Pirate," Jack whispered back to her, before turning to Barbossa.

"I know whose blood you need," he drawled, and Barbossa clenched his jaw, obviously repulsed by Jack, which Violet couldn't blame him for.

* * *

As Violet boarded the Black Pearl, she couldn't help thinking that it wasn't as impressive as Jack had made it out to be. Throughout her first journey as Captain, Jack had painted many a fine picture of his precious ship, at least before he'd been kicked off it.

He didn't talk about the mutiny much, or the island he'd been banished to. But his ship, his pride and joy, well, Violet felt like she'd been on the ship already.

Barbossa led them into the captain's quarters as some sort of gesture of good will, and Violet walked past her, refusing to look at Jack.

Inside his quarters, there was a huge table in the center of the decaying room, the features all over the walls slowly falling into more and more disrepair.

Barbossa took a seat at the table, still pondering the plan Jack had spewed to him moments before while Violet glared at him.

"So you expect to leave me standing on some beach with nothing but a name and your word it's the one I need, and watch you sail away with my ship?" Barbossa demanded, and Violet sighed, taking a seat in front of him at the table, putting her boots up on the table in front of her. "And would you mind, Captain?" Barbossa said, turning to glare at her feet.

"What?" she asked, yawning loudly, and Barbossa sighed.

"No. I expect to leave you standing on some beach with absolutely no name at all, watching me sail away on my ship - and then I'll shout the name back to you. Savvy?" said Jack as he prowled around the cabin, smiling wickedly.

"But that still leaves us with the problem of me standing on some beach with naught but a name and your word it's the one I need," said Barbossa again, and Jack strode over to the table, helping himself to a luscious green apple from a bowl on the table.

"Why do you two do this?" Violet groaned, and both men turned to stare at her, Jack's apple hovering an inch from his mouth.

"What do you mean, love?" Jack asked, holding out the apple to her in silent offering, and she shook her head at him.

"I mean, why do you two talk like this? In this confusing, idiotic way that makes no sense and just confuses everyone further. I can put up with it when it's just Jack, but when it's both of you…" Violet trailed off, and, changing her mind, snatched the apple from Jack's hand and took a huge, crunching bite.

"Ah, so you and Sparrow have been doing some talking, have you?" asked Barbossa, grinning, and Violet rolled her eyes.

"Oh yes, me and Sparrow do a great deal of talking. Most of it includes him doing something stupid and me laughing," she said sweetly, and Jack coughed pointedly.

"That is not true in the slightest," Jack said, sitting down at the table and crossing his boots on top just as Violet had done moments before. "And I suppose Violet would know all about idiots, considering she is one."

"Violet? Is that your name?" Barbossa asked as Violet glared at Jack. "Seems rather pretty for a pirate. Although I suppose one could say the same about your appearance," he added, leering at her, and Violet turned her dark stare on him.

"Captain!" came a voice from the doorway, and all three of them swiveled to face a tall, burly pirate who looked like he could snap a neck with his bare hands, and Violet was seriously hoping he put that skill to use on the two men beside her. "We're coming up on the Interceptor."

* * *

The deck of the Black Pearl was filled with pirates as Barbossa led Violet and Jack across the ship. Barbossa pulled out his telescope to get a better look at the Interceptor, but you didn't need that- Violet could see the ship off in the distance, speeding along through the choppy sea.

Jack frowned at it, and Violet could tell he didn't like where things were going. Quite honestly, she didn't care what happened here, all she wanted was to dock somewhere in hopes of getting her ship back.

"I'm having a thought here, Barbossa. What say we run up a flag of truce? I scurry over to the Interceptor and I negotiate the return of your medallion, eh? What say you to that?" Jack said as he shoved himself into the view of Barbossa's telescope.

"A right genius, you are," Violet said, smirking, and Jack shot her a look.

"No, you see, Jack. That's exactly the attitude that lost you the Pearl. People are easier to search when they're dead," Barbossa said, and gave them both a grin that sent a chill down Violet's spine.

"You know, I wholeheartedly agree with you, Captain," Violet said, smiling. "Why is Jack still alive, anyway?"

"Believe me, I wish he wasn't, but killing Jack Sparrow isn't as easy as you might think," Barbossa said, and Jack glared at both of them. "He's been known to cheat death many a time."

"I've heard," she said, and was about to say something more when Barbossa called out to his crew.

"Lock them in the brig!" he shouted, and Violet swore under her breath as pirates rushed over to take them away.

"You're a cruel man, Barbossa, locking me up with that idiot," Violet yelled at him, and Barbossa simply snatched the apple out of her hand as they were dragged away.

"I'm afraid trouble would have found you with or without me, Captain. It tends to follow Jack Sparrow wherever he goes," Barbossa grinned, and Violet saw him throw her apple out into the sea just before they disappeared below deck.

* * *

Violet didn't stop cursing until Jack finally spoke, breaking the silence as they stood in the cell, their boots soaked from the water on the floor. It felt too familiar, virtually the same situation having happened just three years before.

"Apparently there's a leak," quipped Jack.

"You know what, Jack? Save your talk. If I cared about your stupid words I wouldn't have kicked you off my ship two years ago," she said, fire inside her. It was her fault she was in this cell, she knew, and she had gotten herself into this, but a pirate never admitted she was in the wrong. "You're always an idiot, talking in riddles, finding yourself in trouble. Barbossa was right, you know. He was right about everything. You think you're so clever, that you can beat everyone. Even death. Well surprise, Jack. You can't."

She turned to face the wall and her words hung in the air, weighing down on her as if she was- guilty? That made no sense. Violet had never felt guilty. Not for anyone she'd killed, not for anything she'd stole, not even for kicking that British captain off his own ship and leaving him stranded in the middle of the ocean. She never regretted anything.

But Jack- everything got screwed up when it came to Jack. He was unlike any other pirate she'd ever met: clever, arrogant, and a complete idiot. So why was she drawn to him?

"I know, love," he said, in a voice that made Violet turn around to face him. He was leaning against the cell wall, and she almost felt like it was three years ago all over again. "I've sold my soul to the sea and soon my luck will run out," he continued, and she couldn't stop staring at him. This was a side to him she'd never seen before. "And I won't get to do everything that I've wanted."

He looked at her as he said it, and Violet felt his eyes bore into her.

"And what's that?" she asked, trying to control her heartbeat. She didn't need this. She was trapped in the brig of the Black Pearl, for heaven's sake.

Jack opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly, the sound of a cannon echoed through the ship, jolting them both.

"Suppose my hopes and dreams will have to wait, love. Pity, since most of them are about you," he said, and grinned at her.

And Violet Charles, for once in her life, was speechless.

 **A/N: Hello reader! I hope you are enjoying the story! I'm hoping to soon fall into a regular publishing schedule once I get a few more chapters done. Also, if you are enjoying this, please leave a review so I can keep making this better!**


	5. Intercepted

Violet and Jack were swung backwards against the wall as they both tried to look through a peephole in the side of the ship and crashed into it, hard. Jack landed, rather ungracefully, on top of Violet, who quickly pushed him off.

"Move over, I'm looking," she said, pushing him away as they both raced to the wall again, scrabbling at it and each other like little children.

"At least tell me what you see then, love," Jack said, and she strained her eye to look around the ship.

"It's the Interceptor," she said, then cursed as she stared straight into a cannon, which was about to be lit by Cotton.

"What? What is it?" asked Jack, and she drew back, shaking her head.

"You're not going to like this," she said cautiously as Jack pushed his way over to the hole in the wall. Then it was his turn to swear as he saw the cannon.

"My beautiful ship," he whined, slumping back against the wall.

"You don't happen to have a metal rod, do you?" asked Violet, gesturing to the lock, and he just shook his head sadly.

Suddenly, there was a huge commotion above them, and Violet could have sworn she heard Barbossa scream "Fire!" All of a sudden, the ship was pummeled with cannonballs, and sound erupted all around them as both ships fired and fired again at each other.

There was a huge crash, and a shot tore through the brig, causing both Violet and Jack to fall into the water below them.

"Stop blowing holes in my ship!" screamed Jack, and Violet wanted to laugh, but decided that it might not be the best time.

Slowly, they got up, and Violet noticed that the water was now up to her knees. She watched as Jack snatched something out of the water: a flask that had no doubt belonged to Gibbs. Jack held it up to his mouth and tried to take a swig, and Violet couldn't keep herself from snorting as nothing came out of it. With a glare, Jack turned to the door- and both him and Violet noticed the huge, gaping hole blown by the cannonball at the same time.

"Freedom!" she crowed, and she pushed Jack out of the way as they escaped the cell and made their way above the deck.

* * *

The Black Pearl was in chaos. Everywhere Violet looked, there were pirates fighting, and the mast of the Interceptor had crashed down straight in the middle of the deck.

"What in the blazes-"

"Come on!" Jack said, interrupting her, and she followed him over to a perch on the side of the ship, where pirates were scrambling across the mast and swinging on ropes to board the Interceptor. The two were lost in the crowd of pirates, fortunately, and no one seemed to notice them as they made their way over to where the ropes hung.

"Wait for it," Jack whispered to her as a pirate missed his landing on the Interceptor and begun to swing back to the Pearl. From their perch, Jack quickly stuck out a hand to snatch the rope, and the pirate when flying away with the momentum.

"Thanks very much! Shall we, love?" he called, holding the rope and holding an arm out to her.

"Not a chance. How about I hold the rope, and you can hold on to me," she said haughtily, refusing to lose all of her pirate dignity in one day.

"Sorry, darling, but we don't have time to chat," he grinned, and before Violet could say anything, Jack wrapped an arm around her waist and pushed off from the Pearl, sending them swinging away to the Interceptor.

"Damn you, Jack Sparrow!" Violet yelled as she clung to him, the rope cutting through the wind as they swung above the sea.

"You know you're enjoying this," Jack whispered into her ear, and Violet would have punched him if she wasn't about to fall into the ocean.

Suddenly, they plummeted toward the Interceptor, and Jack stuck out his legs just in time so that the two of them crashed into a pirate fighting Gibbs, and they both tumbled onto the deck.

As the pirates turned to stare at them, Violet quickly stood up and away from Jack, who slowly did the same, a lazy grin on his face.

"Jack! Violet!" Gibbs shouted, a huge smile on his face. But Jack, in his usual, strange fashion, walked straight past Gibbs, only to drop the empty flask from the cell that he'd apparently been carrying into Gibbs' hands.

"Bloody empty!" Jack said before gesturing for Violet to follow him. Violet gave the surprised Gibbs an apologetic shrug as they walked past him, and he returned it with one of his own.

She followed Jack across the deck before he finally spotted his target: a girl with honey-colored hair in a wine-red dress. Elizabeth. A pirate came at her, ready to strike, when Jack grabbed his arm.

"That's not very nice," he quipped, and Elizabeth jabbed the pirate with the butt of her musket, sending the pirate flying over the railing and into the ocean below. Jack leaned forward to grab Elizabeth's shoulders, eyes flashing. "Where's the medallion?" he demanded.

"Wretch!" she shouted, and started to slap him, but Jack caught her wrist before she could do so. Her hand was bandaged, and Jack seemed to glean something from this information as he stared at it.

"Ah! Where's dear William?" Jack asked, false concern in his eyes. Elizabeth looked around frantically, suddenly realizing his disappearance. Then she spotted the mast in the center of the deck: blocking the forward hatch.

"Will!" she called, rushing toward it, and Violet followed her down to the hatch.

"Elizabeth!" came a voice from below it, and Violet knew it belonged to Will.

Violet turned to see Jack scamper off after some monkey, sprinting away like the idiot he was.

"Come back, you idiot!" she called after him, but he paid her no heed. "Looks like it's just us," she said to Elizabeth, who was struggling to help Will.

"I can't move it!" Elizabeth shouted, and Violet bent down to help her, straining as they started to move the mast.

Suddenly, Elizabeth was seized from behind by two pirates, and Violet whirled around, drawing her cutlass.

"Will!" she shrieked, and Violet swiped forward, nicking a pirate on his arm as he jumped back, but it was too late: two more pirates grabbed Violet, and a third ripped away her cutlass. She struggled against them, kicking as hard as she could, but her strength was not enough to overpower them, not without her sword.

"Elizabeth!" Will called, but he was stuck beneath the ship as his love was dragged away. Violet watched as Jack ran over the mast after that cursed monkey to the Black Pearl, but she saw what he didn't: Barbossa, waiting to grab the medallion which, she realized, was what Jack was chasing.

"Wait- Jack!" she called, but there was no way he could have heard her, especially not when the pirate holding her clamped a hand over her mouth.

And as Barbossa held up the medallion, Violet knew that they were in deep trouble.

* * *

The crew of the Interceptor was tied to the mast of the Black Pearl by that same one-eyed pirate Violet hated so much. She could see her pistol still in his hand, and she was immediately repulsed by the sight.

Barbossa was staring out at their destroyed ship, the medallion raised in his hand. From her position where she was held by her captors from before, she could see the sunlight glinting off of it and sparkling like the sea.

Suddenly, there was a loud boom, and the ruined Interceptor exploded in a burst of smoke and flame. Violet swore under her breath, and Elizabeth screamed.

"Will!" she called, and suddenly she twisted free from her captors and sprinted forward to charge Barbossa, but he simply snatched her wrists.

"Welcome back, miss. You took advantage of our hospitality last time. It holds fair now you return the favor," he said, grinning, and Violet could have killed him for that smile alone. He threw Elizabeth back into a crowd of pirates, who eagerly grabbed her, and Violet started to escape from her captors-

"Barbossa!" All heads on board the Pearl swiveled over to see William Turner, soaking wet and standing on the railing of the Pearl. He drops and snatches up a pistol, taking advantage of the stunned pirates. "She goes free!" he shouts, pointing at Elizabeth, who is smiling broadly at him.

"What's in your head, boy?" Barbossa said, recovering his composure, and a few paces away from her, Violet could see Jack looking extremely uncomfortable with Will's reappearance.

"She. Goes. Free," Will repeated, and Violet stared at the pistol in his hand before he realized what it was. That same cursed pistol Jack carried with him everywhere: the one with only one shot.

"You're only got one shot. And we can't die," said Barbossa, confirming her suspicions. Jack muttered something under his breath, and Will turned to stare at him.

"You can't. I can," Will said defiantly, turning back to Barbossa, and he puts the barrel of the gun directly under his chin.

"Like that," Jack said, audibly now, and rolled his eyes.

"Who are you?" asked Barbossa, and Jack saw his opportunity during the extreme confusion of the pirates, and he sauntered up to him.

"No one. He's no one. A distant cousin of my aunt's nephew twice removed. Lovely singing voice, though. Eunuch," Jack warbled, and Violet wanted to slap herself in the face. If he wanted to alert everyone that he had his own plans with Turner and the rest of them, then he was doing great.

"My name is Will Turner. My father was Bootstrap Bill Turner. His blood runs through my veins," Will announced, and Jack shook his head, groaning audibly as Barbossa shot him a weary look.

"He's a spitting image of ol' Bootstrap Bill come back to haunt us," warned the one-eyed pirate with Violet's pistol, and the pirates around him nodded.

"On my word, do as I say or I'll pull this trigger, and be lost to Davy Jones' Locker," said Will, cocking the pistol and making Elizabeth gasp.

"Name your terms, Mr. Turner," conceded Barbossa, walking closer to Will. Violet wanted to warn him that no deal with a pirate ever went the way you wanted it to, but she wasn't sure if he'd really care one way or the other about what she had to say.

"Elizabeth goes free!" Will repeated, and Barbossa rolled his eyes.

"Yes, we know that one. Anything else?" the Captain asked, and Will looked slightly overwhelmed, obviously having not planned that far ahead. Violet started to point to herself, and Will turned to look at her, but he was quickly distracted by Jack, who was gesturing frantically to himself.

"And the crew! The crew are not to be harmed," finished Will, and both Violet and Jack groaned. A sickly smile spread across Barbossa's face, and he stepped forward toward Will.

"Agreed," he said, far too happily, and Violet had a feeling that this wasn't going to end well for any of them.


	6. Marooned

Violet had been right.

The second she saw the island the Black Pearl had arrived at, she knew what was going to happen. Her suspicions were confirmed when Elizabeth and Jack were marched to the plank, and Will was gagged and apprehended by two burly pirates gripping his arms. She, on the other hand, had managed to land a nasty kick to one of her captor's shins, but unfortunately, this only angered him and made him twist her arms back harder.

She watched as Elizabeth was prodded out further and further along the plank, and Will was practically in hysterics. He wrenched free of the pirates holding him and spat out his gag, glaring at Barbossa.

"Barbossa, you lying bastard! You swore she'd go free!" he growled, but Barbossa held Will's sharp stare.

"Don't dare impugn me honor, boy! I agreed she'd go free, but it was you who failed to specify when nor where!" Barbossa spat before signaling a pirate to tie a gag over Will's mouth. Violet had to admit, he was right. Will should have known better than to barter with Captain Barbossa.

"Though it does seem a shame to lose something so fine, don't it lads?" he said with his gentlemanly air, turning to Elizabeth, and she seemed to brighten for a moment before she saw the smile spread across Barbossa's face.

"So I'll be having that dress back before you go," he said, grinning, and Elizabeth's face darkened.

"Jump, Elizabeth!" Violet suddenly found herself calling, and all the pirates turned to face her. Her heart burned with anger, and she was fed up with Barbossa and his idiotic pirate ways. She hadn't seen a woman out on the sea in years, and now that she had, she wasn't going to let her be humiliated by this idiot of a pirate captain.

"What are you on about?" asked Barbossa, turning to her, but she wrenched an arm out of the pirate from behind her's grip and gestured to Elizabeth.

"Jump!" she called again, and Elizabeth finally understood, and nodded. With a last, longing look at Will, she jumped, dress and all, into the ocean with a splash and began to swim toward shore. Barbossa turned on Violet, furious, but she simply gave him a wide smile.

"It's sweet of you to look out for Miss Swann, Captain, but that dress was mine to take. And I think you've crossed me a few too many times," he hissed, and Violet rolled her eyes, yawning loudly. "So you can take the same little trip," he finished, and Violet stopped cold mid-yawn.

"You wouldn't," she said, glaring at him, and he grinned at her.

"Oh, I would," he said, and the pirates behind her began to push her towards the plank. She felt the cold press of a gun at her back, and she hissed, trying to escape her captors to no avail.

"I'll kill you for this, Barbossa," she swore at him, but he and his crew simply laughed at her as she stepped out onto the plank, turning backwards to face the pirates. She shot a dark look at Jack, who was staring out at the island with a terrified look on his face.

"I'm sure you will, _Captain_ ," he said, drawing out the last word with a grin on his face.

"You said my crew was not to be harmed," said Jack suddenly, staring straight at Violet with an intensity that made her uncomfortable.

"Ah, Jack, and I thought you were her temporary acquaintance," Barbossa said, smirking at Jack, who didn't take his eyes off of Violet. "And don't worry, I'm sure the Captain can take care of herself. But just in case- you'll be joining her."

A pirate pointed his sword at Violet, forcing her further back on the plank until she was nearly out of wood to walk on.

"Sorry, love," Jack said quietly, but Violet had no interest in his words.

"I don't suppose I could convince you to keep Jack?" she asked Barbossa as he put his foot above the plank, ready to stamp on it.

"Ah, but I think you'll have so much more fun together," Barbossa said with a cruel grin on his face, and the pirate brought his foot down hard on the plank, sending Violet plummeting downwards toward the cold blue sea.

* * *

Violet crawled onto the sandy beach, coughing up sea water and completely soaked. She managed to get to her feet, and took staggering steps over to where Elizabeth stood, her dress clinging to her skin. From behind her, she heard splashing, and she turned to see Jack spluttering and getting to his feet.

She turned away from him and out to the sea, and all three of them turned to watch the Black Pearl sail away, leaning to one side and badly damaged, but still moving.

"That's the second time I've had to watch that man sail away with my ship," said Jack, shaking his hand as he walked out of the water and onto the warm sand.

"How hard that must be for you," Violet said haughtily, turning and striding away further up the beach towards some palm trees, and Jack darted ahead in the same direction.

"Well, I'd expect _you_ to know just how hard it is, love," he said dismissively as he waltzed ahead, and Violet burned a hole into his back with her glare.

"Who are you?" Elizabeth asked suddenly, turning to Violet, and she opened her mouth to answer when Jack butted in.

"That's Captain Violet Charles, love, a bloodthirsty pirate and an expert at ruining things," Jack said, and Violet's eyes darkened.

"I ruined things? Maybe you should consider the fact that it was you who got us stuck on the Pearl in the first place," she yelled, and he turned to her as she stepped closer to him and pointed a finger to his chest.

"I did not get us stuck there, love, and if you hadn't played hero with Miss Swann, we wouldn't be on this damned island," he yelled back at her, and she dug her finger harder into his chest.

"No, Jack, _I_ wouldn't be on the island. You would still be here, home sweet home, with Miss Swann, except she'd be humiliated and you wouldn't have a playmate," she said coldly, and Jack was silent for a moment.

"I can't argue with that," he said quietly, and his eyes traveled to the finger she still held to his chest. Immediately, she made to pull it away, but he grabbed her hand and stared into her eyes. "And you do make an excellent hero."

"Jack, you were marooned on this island before, weren't you? So we can escape in the same way you did then!" Elizabeth interrupted triumphantly, and Jack whirled around to face her, giving Violet the chance to pull her hand away.

"To what point and purpose, young missy? The Black Pearl is gone. Dear Violet's added another enemy to her long list. And unless you have a rudder and a lot of sails hidden under that bodice," he added with a glance at Elizabeth's wet dress, "-unlikely, young Mr. Turner will be dead long before you can reach him," he finished, and he walked towards a particular palm tree and began pacing around like a lunatic.

"But you're Captain Jack Sparrow-" Elizabeth began, but Violet walked over to her and silenced her with a hand.

"Let me stop you there, Miss Swann. No doubt you've heard many things about him, but Jack mostly gets by with cheats and lies," Violet told her, and Elizabeth looked disheartened.

"Thanks, love," Jack said, finding a spot on the sandy ground and beginning to jump up and down on it.

"How did you escape then?" Elizabeth asked Jack, and he sighed heavily as he kneeled down and began poking around on the ground.

"Last time… I was here a grand total of three days. All right? Last time…" Jack's fingers finally found purchase, and he heaved a trap door that hadn't seemed to have been there before up and over. Under the door, bottles and bottles of rum lay abandoned and dusty in a pit in the sand, and Violet sucked in a breath at the sight. She hadn't had rum in ages.

"... the rumrunners who used this island as a cache came by, and I was able to barter passage off," Jack continued, leaning down to pull out a few bottles and nearly disappearing into the pit.

"From the looks of things, they've long been out of business. Probably have your bloody friend Norrington to thank for that," he finished, standing up and brushing past Violet and Elizabeth on his way to the beach.

"That's pathetic, even for you," said Violet, shaking her head and deciding to ask about this Norringon fellow later.

"She's right. That's the secret grand adventure of the infamous Jack Sparrow? You spent three days lying on the beach drinking rum," snarled Elizabeth incredulously, and Jack turned around, spreading his rum-filled hands wide.

"Welcome to the Caribbean, love," he said, winking at Violet, and she sensed that Elizabeth was about to crack one of his bottles over his head.

* * *

By the time night fell on the island, Violet and Jack were drunk on rum, jumping around a roaring fire they had made hours before. Elizabeth, Violet knew, was simply pretending, since there was no way that a proper English lady like her would ever act in such a way, but she was too drunk to care.

"We're devils, we're black sheep, we're really bad eggs, drink up me hearties, yo ho! Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!" the three of them sang, and Jack came up next to Violet as they danced around the fire.

"I love this song!" shouted Jack, losing his balance, and he stumbled, tumbling down onto the beach and bringing Violet with him, and they both landed next to each other in the sand. Elizabeth landed pointedly on the other side of the fire, but Violet, through her stupor, could sense her watching them silently through the flames.

"When I get the Pearl back, I'm going to teach it to the whole crew, and we'll sing it all the time!" he chirped, and Violet grinned at him.

"When I get the Assassin back, I'll do the same, and we can sail next to each other and wake up the whole Caribbean!" she crowed, and he nodded vigorously.

"Wherever we want to go, we'll go," Jack said, and suddenly he pulled Violet closer to him, an arm around her waist. "Me and you, love. I told you we were bound to each other," he said, and Violet couldn't help herself from leaning her head against his shoulder and melting into him. She had no idea what she was doing, she shouldn't be close to Jack, she shouldn't _want_ to be close to Jack, but her blurred mind could only seem to chant one thing: _Jack. Jack. Jack._

"Have you ever loved anyone?" Violet found herself asking, the words tumbling out of her mouth as she stared out across the dark sea.

"Twice, I've loved," he said quietly, his head touching hers, and Violet absentmindedly wondered where her hat had gone. "Once long ago. And once more, three years ago," he continued, and Violet nodded, not paying much heed to his words.

"I've never," she said, watching the waves. "I wonder what it would be like."

"It's hard to describe," Jack said, and Violet lifted her head to notice him staring straight at her. "Especially with this little rum."

Violet ignored his sharp gaze, and they both picked up their bottles, lifting them into the air.

"To lost ships!" Violet called.

"To freedom!" Jack added, and they tapped their bottles together before tipping them and downing the contents.

"I don't want to kill you anymore, Jack," Violet said quietly as her hazy mind threatened to claim her, and she struggled to keep her eyes open.

"The feeling is mutual," Jack replied, and with one last look at the stars, the two of them fell back into the sand, passed out, drunk on rum and unasked questions.


	7. Her and the Ship and the Sea

When Violet opened her eyes, the first thing she felt was the sand underneath her skin. It was under her fingernails and in her hair, and it was hot from the sun that blazed directly above her. Slowly, she pushed herself upwards, and as she sat up a raging pain erupted through her head, making her take in a sharp breath.

"Damn," she whispered, rubbing her temple to try to stop the throbbing. She tried to remember what had happened… And then it hit her. The rum. The fire. Jack. The fire. The fire?

Smoke drifted past her, and she immediately turned to see a blazing fire roaring across the beach from her, tended by Elizabeth, who was currently throwing another barrel of rum into it.

"But why's the rum gone?" she heard a voice exclaim, and she saw Jack by the fire, waving his hands around madly. Violet groaned, getting to her feet, and forcing herself across the sand to where they stood.

"A bit early for this, isn't it?" she yawned once she'd made it, and both of them turned to stare at her.

"Did you see what she did? Tell her, Violet, tell her she's ruined everything!" whimpered Jack, looking at the burning rum with dispair in his eyes.

"A signal fire, eh?" Violet mused, turning to Elizabeth, who looked awfully normal for someone who had drank such an _extensive_ amount of rum the previous night.

"Give it one hour, maybe two, keep a 'weather eye open' and you will see white sails on that horizon!" Elizabeth said, and Jack groaned, muttering something about 'insolent fools' and 'rum'. He wrapped his hand around his pistol as Elizabeth turned away, and Violet snickered, making him stop.

"What are you going to do, Sparrow, shoot her?" she smirked, and he glared at her, slowly putting down the gun.

"Bloody idiots, the both of you," spat Jack before giving her a dark look and sauntering off down the beach. Deciding not to follow the petulant child, Violet sat down next to Elizabeth, was staring longingly out at sea.

"You're smart for a proper English lady, Miss Swann," Violet said to Elizabeth, who suddenly turned to her.

"Please, call me Elizabeth," she replied, a smile on her face. "And I think you're the smart one. I never got to thank you."

"For what?" Violet asked, puzzled.

"For everything you did back on the Pearl. For telling me to jump. You must be an excellent captain," Elizabeth said, and Violet grinned, the words making transporting her back to days on the sea, with a crew and a ship and nothing in her way.

"Aye, I am," she said, and Elizabeth laughed. "And it was nothing, Elizabeth. Hector Barbossa deserves much more than that."

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you know Jack?" she asked, and Violet sighed, turning to stare at the small figure in the distance who was crossing the sand.

"I met him in the brig of a navy ship a few years ago," Violet recalled, a faint smile creeping across her face. "He helped me liberate my first ship, and we sailed our way back to land. But, as usual, Jack Sparrow betrayed me, just like he does to everyone sooner or later. And I told him he could get off my ship, or I would kill him." Violet tried to make the words sound light, but they brought back memories she had long since buried deep inside her.

"That's terrible," Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "I despise the man."

"He's a complete fool, idiot, and scoundrel, that I'll agree with," Violet said, nodding. Elizabeth gave her a concerned look, and Violet laughed, staring back at her. "What?"

"Nothing," Elizabeth said, turning back to the sea. "It's just that I can see that he cares for you." Violet jolted, turning to her.

"What do you mean?" she scoffed, shaking her head. "Jack Sparrow cares for no one, least of all me. That's the only way you get by on these seas, and Jack's the worst of them all. If you don't benefit him, you're useless." The words snapped something within her, but she tried to ignore it. She didn't care for Jack Sparrow. She didn't.

"Do you remember anything from last night?" Elizabeth asked her quietly, and Violet thought back to the fire and the rum, fighting with the dull ache in her head.

 _Wherever we go, we'll go. Me and you, love. I told you we were bound to each other._

"I- did you-" Violet stuttered, hating how weak she sounded. She was a bloody pirate captain, for crying out loud, and here she was blubbering over Jack Sparrow like some idiotic fool.

"I was merely pretending to drink the rum, I trust you've figured out," Elizabeth said, "and there's no way his words were merely fragments of my imagination. He does care about you, Captain." Violet shook her head vehemently, grinding her fists into the sand. There was no way on this blasted island that Jack cared for her. No possible way. And it was even more impossible that she felt the same way.

She was about to launch into a rant about all the things she hated about Jack when suddenly, something on the water caught her eye. A ship, bedecked with white sails and sailing majestically through the glimmering waves.

"Elizabeth!" she shouted, pointing towards the ship, and they both turned to look, the ship coming closer with every minute.

"They came," Elizabeth breathed, turning to the boat. "Good, because I don't know what I would do if I was wrong and we were stuck here with Jack and with all the rum gone."

* * *

The H. M. S. Dauntless was a horrible ship, and Violet wanted to bring a torch of Elizabeth's signal fire and burn up the whole hideous thing. All around it, white-wigged soldiers in red uniforms stared at her as they stood on deck, the man with the longest and ugliest wig talking to Elizabeth.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but who are you? And you? And you?" Violet asked, pointing to the old man addressing Elizabeth, another soldier who couldn't take his eyes off of Miss Swan, and Jack.

"Ah, love, this is Governor Swann, dear Miss Swann's father. And here we have Commodore Norrington, a young lad in the race for the said Miss Swann's hand. And I, as you might have heard, am Captain Jack Sparrow. And might I add you are looking especially lovely today, Captain," Jack declared majestically, and all soldiers turned to glare at the two pirates as they bantered.

"Have I heard right? Another man in love with Elizabeth?" she turned to the said Commodore, who was glaring at the both of them. "I hate to be the one to break it to you, Commodore, but young William is beating you. Badly, I might add," she whispered loudly to him, and he looked like he could shoot her right then and there.

"And who might you be?" he asked pretentiously, and Violet gasped, dropping into a mock bow.

"Oh, forgive me, good Commodore. I am Captain Coldblood Charles," she said, and Norrington narrowed his eyes.

"Of course. Another pirate. And Captain Coldblood, no less. Yes, I've heard of you," he added, and Violet could tell he'd had this same sort of discussion with Jack already.

"Well, you don't know how much that pleases me to hear," Violet said with a smile and the Commodore gave her an uncomfortable look.

"Back to the matter at hand," interrupted Governor Swann with a cough, "We must return immediately to Port Royal."

"That's ridiculous!" Elizabeth shouted. "We've got to save Will!" She shot Violet a pleading look, but Violet only shrugged back. She was a pirate, not a family counselor.

"We can't do that, Elizabeth. The boy's fate is regrettable, yes, but then, so is his decision to engage in piracy," the Governor remarked, and Elizabeth groaned, shaking her head.

"To rescue me! To prevent anything from happening to me!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. Violet watched Jack lean over Norrington, who looked concerned at Elizabeth's obvious dismay.

"If I may be so bold as to inject my professional opinion. ...The Pearl was listing near to scuppers after the battle. It's very unlikely she'll be able to make good time. Think about it. The Black Pearl ... the last real pirate threat in the Caribbean, mate. How can you pass that up, right?" Jack said, and Norrington shook his head, dismissing him.

"By remembering that I serve others, Mister Sparrow, not only myself," said Norrington darkly, and Violet snorted.

"What a good man you are, Commodore. Truly an example for us all," she drawled, and he shot her another glare.

"Commodore, I beg you. Please do this- for me. As a wedding gift," said Elizabeth quietly, and all heads on board swiveled to her.

"Are you joking?" Violet asked, shocked. The girl was selfless enough to give up her happiness for Will's life? Her kindness half awed Violet and half made her want to throw up.

"Elizabeth- Are you accepting the Commodore's proposal?" said the Governor delightedly, and Elizabeth shot Violet a weary look.

"I- I am," Elizabeth said, and Violet swore loudly enough for both Norrington and the Governor to utter shocked gasps.

"No you're not," she burst out, and she couldn't believe she was saving Elizabeth's pride yet again. But although she hated to admit it, the girl was growing on her. She was honest, and even though she was this stupid wigged fool's daughter, she had a pirate in her.

"Captain, please," Elizabeth began, but Violet stalked over to the Commodore, getting up in his face.

"Listen to me, _Commodore_. You're a sorry excuse of a soldier and sorry excuse of a man. If you truly love Elizabeth, why would you force her into a life of agony just so you can prance around your high society with a wife? You know, for all your objection to piracy, you're selfish enough to be one," Violet growled, and Norrington looked extremely shaken.

"How dare you question my feelings for Elizabeth. You know nothing, _pirate_ ," Norrington snarled at her, narrowing his eyes.

"Then prove me wrong, you coward. Find Turner of your own will, not by forcing Elizabeth into anything. She deserves far better than you, anyway," Violet said with sharp intensity, and Norrington stared at her sharply. An uncomfortable silence filled the ship before Norrington finally cleared his throat, breaking his stare with Violet.

"Miss Swann, there will be no need to accept my proposal. Mister Sparrow, Miss Charles, you will accompany these fine men to the helm and provide us with a bearing to Isla de Muerta. You will then spend the rest of the voyage contemplating all possible meanings of the phrase 'silent as the grave.' Do I make myself clear?" announced Norrington, and Jack smiled, stepping back submissively.

"Inescapably clear," he quipped, and Elizabeth mouthed a silent 'thank you' to Violet, who simply nodded in return, sighing. She was becoming too soft for a pirate captain.

"Thank you, James," Elizabeth breathed, and the Commodore tipped his head, sadly.

"Anything for you, Miss Swann," he said quietly, and as Elizabeth, the surprised governor, and Jack were escorted away, Violet turned to him, shaking her head.

"You know, the first step to piracy is giving up what you love," she said, but the Commodore just gave her a cold look.

"I'm sure you'll be the first to know if I turn, Miss Charles," he replied quietly, a distant look in his eyes, and Violet grinned back at him.

"I hope I will," she said, and with that she stalked away after the others.

* * *

The sun cast an orange glow across Violet's face as it disappeared below the waves ahead of her. She was completely alone on deck as Norrington wanted to meet with his men, the only sound breaking through the silence the soft lull of the waves against the side of her boat. It was just her and the ship and the sea, the endless carpet of ocean calm beneath her.

"If only they could see Coldblood Charles now," said a voice from behind her, deep and accented with a hint of mockery. Jack.

She turned to face him, the light hitting her from behind and framing her in an ironically angelic way.

"What do you want?" she asked, falling back into her regular cold self. Jack took a swaggering step up to her, and she folded her arms, leaning against the railing of the ship.

"Do I need to want something to say hello to my favorite captain?" he said with a lazy smile, and Violet rolled her eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous. Your favorite captain is yourself," she said, shaking her head, and he laughed slowly.

"That's true. But I think Miss Swann is making you soft," he said, moving over to stand closer to her. "Although it was impressive when you showed the Commodore his place earlier," he added, and Violet laughed.

"He had it coming," she said simply, and Jack nodded in agreement. They stood in silence for a minute, before Violet finally took a deep breath and asked what was on her mind.

"Did you mean what you said? On the beach, I mean," she blurted awkwardly, and Jack grinned, flashing his gold teeth at her.

"I said a lot of things on the beach," he drawled, and Violet rolled her eyes, turning away from him and back to the sea.

"Never mind, Jack. I shouldn't have expected you to take anything seriously," she said angrily, but Jack walked over and came next to her at the edge of the ship.

"Do you even remember that night?" he asked softly, and she turned to him.

"I don't remember much," she admitted, "but I know I probably said something stupid, and I'm just letting you know now, that was the rum and not-"

"Not what you truly think, is that it?" he asked, and Violet was surprised by the amount of hurt she detected in his voice.

"I guess so," she replied, but he was already walking away across the deck, and Violet wanted to say more, but she couldn't bring herself to follow him.

"Just so you know," Jack said, turning around just before he disappeared below the deck, "I meant what I said, that night. All of it."

And then Violet was alone again, just her and the ship and the sea.

 **A/N: Hey everybody! These past few chapters have been so much fun for me to write and I really hope you are enjoying them! If so please review and let me know what you think! I'll be posting another flashback chapter hopefully soon so watch out for that :) As always, thanks so much for reading!**


	8. Cold Blood, Cold Soul

Violet had made sure that she was on the opposite end of the longboat from Jack and the Commodore as they rowed toward the Isla de Muerta. As much as she simply _adored_ their company, she figured that neither of the two men was in the mood to chat at the moment, which she was perfectly fine with.

"I don't care for the situation," muttered Norrington as he lowered a spyglass. Beside them, the Black Pearl bobbed in the water, seemingly abandoned. "Any attempt to storm the cave could turn into an ambush."

"Not if you're the one doing the ambushing. Charles and I go in, we convince Barbossa to send his men out with their little boats - You and your mates return to the Dauntless and blast them with your little cannons, eh. What do you have to lose?" Jack said with a grin, and he slung an arm around Norrington, who quickly removed it uncomfortably.

"Nothing I'd lament being rid of," he said through gritted teeth, and Violet smiled from the back of the boat.

"Really, Commodore? Not even a certain young lady who was minutes away from being your wife?" she said, and both men turned to stare at her angrily.

"You have no right to speak of Elizabeth, especially not when you were the one who forced me to do this in the first place," Norrington said with a dark gleam in his eye, and Violet shrugged, turning away from him.

"Love makes people do strange things, doesn't it?" she asked, trying to attempt a nonchalant tone, but out of the corner of her eye she could see Jack staring at her intently.

"Are you speaking from experience, Miss Charles?" Norrington asked slyly, and Violet twisted back to him, a passive expression on her face.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," she said flippantly, and Norrington simply raised an eyebrow at her, as did Jack. "All I'm saying is, darling Elizabeth might not be completely safe on the Dauntless." Norrington looked taken aback at that, throwing a glance back at the Dauntless.

He kept his eyes on the ship, considering Jack's proposal and Violet's words.

"I suppose we could attempt your plan," Norrington said warily after a few moments' silence, and Jack gave Violet a sharp look. "But if any harm befalls Miss Swann, rest assured that you will be dead by sunrise at my hand."

"Oh, don't worry, I am very assured," Violet said, and Norrington gave her a solemn nod.

"Then please, Miss Charles. Allow me to do the ambushing," he said coldly.

* * *

A few moments later, Violet found herself in a longboat, alone with Jack and rowing away from the Dauntless and towards the Isla de Muerta. They had been silent since they left, Jack having snatched the oars and begun rowing almost the second they reached the boat. He hadn't looked at Violet since, and she couldn't help how much she hated being ignored by him.

"Listen, Jack, I don't know why you're acting like such a child, but-"

"A child," he repeated, cutting off Violet as he turned to stare at her. "Maybe I am a child, love, for believing that there was a heart somewhere inside that cold soul." Violet opened her mouth, furious now and not even bothering to control her temper. Why should she, when there was only the open sea to witness them?

"I like how you're saying that, after you haven't once truly cared for anyone in your entire life," she hissed, and he glared at her, a strange expression on his usually smirking face.

"With all due respect, _Violet_ , you don't know anything about me," he said coldly, drawing out her name like it was a curse.

"I know that you're a backstabbing traitor who reels people in and spits them back out on the cold floor, left with nothing. After what you did to me, how could you ever expect me to get close to you just so you could do it again?" she said angrily, and Jack shut his mouth, sorrow deepening across his features. He didn't respond for a few minutes, rowing silently towards the mouth of the cave while Violet fumed across from him.

"Violet, what I did to you is the only thing I regret in my entire life," he said finally, and the quiet words sent a tremor through her.

"Well, your words are pretty now, aren't they," she said bitterly, refusing to forgive him so easily. She'd tried to hate him for it, truly she had, but every time she thought of his face the only thing she'd wanted over those two long years was to see him again. And she hated herself for it.

"I don't expect anything from you. After we rescue Turner, I'll drop you off at the nearest port," he said, and Violet shook her head silently. It was what she told herself she wanted to hear, but deep inside her, she didn't really want this adventure to end. Because once it did, she'd have to wait a long, long time again until she found an excuse to see Captain Jack Sparrow again.

* * *

Violet and Jack stood at the back of a crowd of pirates, once again in the treasure cavern of the Isla de Muerta. However, this time, it was not Elizabeth Swann who stood over the stone chest, but Will Turner.

Captain Barbossa stood above him, fingering the stone knife that would soon spill Will's blood if they didn't hurry. She wasn't certain what Jack's plan was, but he wasn't exactly in the brightest mood to tell her, and she wasn't exactly in the brightest mood to ask him.

"Come on," Jack said, and they began to worm their way through the crowd, Jack making pointed 'excuse me's everytime they passed someone.

"Begun by blood. By blood undo-" Barbossa's words were cut off as Violet and Jack burst through to the front of the crowd of pirates, and Violet's gaze when immediately to that horrible one-eyed pirate with her pistol and the other burly one who had her cutlass.

"Jack! Violet!" Will exclaimed triumphantly, and Barbossa stared at the two of them, eyes wide.

"It's not possible," he breathed, and Jack flashed him a grin, back to his normal self.

"Not probable," Jack corrected, which seemed to anger Barbossa further.

"Where's Elizabeth?" demanded Will, passion and worry written all over his face and filling his tone.

"She's safe, just like I promised. She's sent us to rescue you, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. So we're all men of our word, really, except for Elizabeth, who is, in fact, a woman," Jack drawled, and Violet found herself struggling to keep up with his words. Suddenly, pirates began to surround them, and Barbossa pointed his stone knife at the two of them menacingly.

"And I'm going to kill you, Barbossa, just like I promised," Violet said sweetly, and Barbossa gave her a threatening glare.

"Shut up! You're next," he spat at her, and he quickly whirled the knife around back to Turner's throat.

"Violet, love, calm down, there will be no killing here. And- you don't want to be doing that, mate," said Jack, turning to Barbossa, and the words immediately intrigued the pirate captain. He shot a glance at Jack before bringing the knife closer to Will's skin.

"No, I really think I do," he said, glaring at everyone and everything.

"Your funeral," Jack said, shrugging, and Barbossa dug the knife closer into Will, agonized by Jack's words. The strain was visible on his face, visibly warring with himself, until he finally swung around and brought the knife down, groaning.

"Why don't I want to do it?" he asked aggressively, and Jack stepped forward, shaking away the pirates from around him as he stepped forward.

"Because the H. M. S. Dauntless, pride of the Royal Navy, is floating just offshore, waiting for you," Jack said with a smile, and Violet wanted to scream from annoyance. Of course he would betray Norrington. Classic Sparrow.

Barbossa stared at Jack intently, and all around them, pirates were reacting in surprise and whispering amongst each other.

"Just hear me out, mate. You order your men to row out to the Dauntless, they do what they do best. Robert's your uncle, Fannie's your aunt, there you are with two ships. The makings  
of your very own fleet. Of course, you'll take the grandest as your flagship, and who's to argue? But what of the Pearl?" Jack asked, sauntering over to Barbossa with his hands spread in front of him.

"Name me Captain. I'll sail under your colors, I'll give you ten percent of me plunder, and you get to introduce yourself as 'Commodore Barbossa.' Savvy?" Jack continued, and Barbossa folded his arms, considering Jack's terms.

"And what of Charles?" he asked, staring down at Violet, who was staring daggers at the pirate with her cutlass.

"What of me?" she said, turning back to the men, and Barbossa rolled his eyes at her.

"There must be something in this for you, or else you wouldn't be here," he said coldly, and Violet shrugged, stepping closer to him. "And I don't think you'd particularly enjoy sailing under my colors."

"I'll sail aboard the Pearl," she said simply, hating the submissive words as soon as she said them. But whatever Jack was doing, it was normally best to play along.

"Really? Have you two finally-"

"No!" Jack and Violet exclaimed childishly, and Barbossa let out a low chuckle.

"And I suppose in exchange, you want me not to kill the whelp?" asked Barbossa, gesturing to Will, and Jack shrugged, throwing a swift glance over at Will who was scowling darkly at them.

"No, no, no, not at all. By all means, kill the whelp. Just not yet. Wait to lift the curse- until the opportune moment," Jack said, and Will glared at him.

"What curse?" Violet whispered to him, but he simply shook his head and slowly sauntered over until he was right in front of Will and the chest.

"For instance:" Jack continued, and as he scooped up a handful of coins from the stone chest, Violet knew exactly what he was planning on doing.

"After you've killed Norrington's men," he said slowly, and as he spoke he began to drop a coin back into the chest with each word. "Every. Last. One." She watched as Jack palmed one of the coins, and at a quick glance she could tell Will noticed too.

"You've been planning this from the beginning. Ever since you learned my name," Will hissed, and Jack shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"I want fifty percent of yer plunder," Barbossa demanded, and Violet and Jack turned back to him.

"Come now, Barbossa, that's hardly fair with both me and Charles on board. Make it fifteen," Jack argued.

"Forty," insisted Barbossa.

"Twenty," Violet demanded, stepping in, and Barbossa turned his hard stare on her.

"And we'll throw in a hat!" Jack added, elbowing Violet, and she swiftly jabbed him back. There was no chance that she was going to be pushed around by him. Not now, not ever.

"We have an accord," Barbossa said, his mouth breaking into a sickly smile, and Jack stuck out a hand for Barbossa to shake, but Barbossa simply ignored him and turned to Violet. "Captain?"

"But of course," Violet said, and the two grinned fakely at each other as they shook hands. His hand was disgustingly dirty, just as Violet had expected.

"All hands- to the boats!" Jack said grandly, recovering from his momentary rejection, and Barbossa shot him an angry look.

"Apologies, you give the orders," Jack said submissively, and he gestured Barbossa forward towards the pirates gathered in front of them.

"Gents-" Barbossa crowed, a grin on his face, "Take a walk!"

Jack's smile fell, and he turned to Violet, who simply shook her head disappointedly at him.

"Not to the boats?" he asked, but Barbossa simply smiled at him.

"Not to the boats," Barbossa agreed.

 **A/N: Sorry for the late update! It was a busy week :) Enjoy!**


	9. Self-Taught

The pirates cleared out of the cavern quicker than Violet would have expected, and she wondered what this curse was. Jack had never told her about anything like that. Not that he had told her much of anything.

"I must admit, Jack, I thought I had you figured. But turns out, you're a hard man to predict," Barbossa crooned, turning to Jack. But Violet was gone, slipping behind a mound of coins and treasure towards a burly pirate who had stayed behind from the others: the one with a silver, shining cutlass hanging from his belt. A cutlass that belonged to her.

He was engrossed in a wooden chest full of diamonds, and he was bent down next to a river of water that snaked around behind Jack, Barbossa, and Will. She made her way carefully towards the pirate, her lip curling in a sneer the way it always did before a battle. She waited until she was directly behind him before she snatched the hilt of the cutlass and slid it as quietly as she could from the man's scabbard. The man began to turn, but Violet brought the cutlass up and slit the pirate's throat in one swift motion before heaving her body into him and pushing him into the water. Somehow, he was still able to yell, which unsettled Violet.

The splash alerted Barbossa and Jack, who seemed to be finishing up one of his speeches that he always did before executing one of his grand master plans.

"What-" began Barbossa, but Jack was at another pirate's side already, drawing the unsuspecting man's sword and pushing him into the water to join Violet's victim. Quickly, Jack flipped it up into Will's hands, who looked surprised as he caught it with bound hands, and used the moment of disbelief to push the pirate guarding him into the water behind them.

With a sharp noise, Jack whipped out his own sword, and started towards the surprised Barbossa, who quickly drew his own blade. Violet, never one to miss a fight, ran over to help Will, who had just freed his hands and was being assaulted by two pirates.

"Need a hand?" she asked, and the sound of her blade clashing against another was a song in her ears that sent her blood rushing.

"Thanks," Will said gratefully, and the two of them fought side by side, jabbing and parrying and bringing down all they could against the three pirates that had now joined the fight.

"You're good," Violet said breathlessly, leaning forward to skewer a pirate. She pulled out her sword, which was now coated in a fresh laquer of blood, and kicked the man backwards into the water.

"Self-taught," he explained, and she took a minute to admire his expert footwork. "And you're not so bad yourself."

"I, too, am self-taught," she said haughtily, and the two of them brought their swords back at the same time, their parrying sending ringing through the cave.

Beside them, Jack and Barbossa were fighting a heated battle, both men's years of hatred and anger escaping through the clash of their swords.

With finesse, Will finally took out his pirate just as Violet took out hers, the two bodies tumbling back to the water.

"Should we help Jack?" Will asked, and Violet nodded swiftly. They started toward Jack and Barbossa, swords drawn, just in time to see Jack drive his sword through Barbossa's chest. Violet stared, disbelieving, as Barbossa simply smiled and pulled the sword out of his own chest.

"What in the-" she began, but suddenly, Barbossa turned the sword and thrust it straight into Jack Sparrow.

"No!" she screamed, unable to stop herself, and for just a minute, the world seemed to stop. It couldn't end like this. It couldn't. She felt herself running towards him as he stared down at the sword in his chest, staggering backwards until-

He turned in a skeleton the second moonlight hit his skin. Violet gasped, stumbling back, the sight nearly making her fall to the ground. He was completely skeletal, his clothes torn and his eyes wide and unseeing.

"That's- interesting," Jack said, as if nothing was wrong, and he looked down at something clutched in his hand: a medallion. The one he had palmed from the chest earlier. He was too good at this.

"So that's the curse," Violet breathed to herself, standing up straighter. "Of course there are skeletons."

"Couldn't resist, mate," Jack said apologetically to Barbossa, who quickly grabbed a sword and rushed at Jack, eventually landing in the moonlight. Violet supposed she shouldn't have been surprised when he, too, turned into a skeleton, and the two monsters rushed at each other with renewed vigor.

"Are you a skeleton too?" Violet asked Will tentatively after she'd regained what was left of her composure, and Will shook his head solemnly.

"Fortunately not," he said, and they stared at the battle, unsure of whether or not they should help. All of a sudden, Jack managed to kick Barbossa to the ground, who rolled downward, getting up just in time.

The two men dueled expertly, every step perfect. For pirates, that was.

"So what now, Jack Sparrow? Are we to be two immortals, locked in an epic battle 'til Judgement Day and trumpets sound? Hmm?" Barbossa mocked, dancing around Jack as he swished his blade.

"Or you could surrender," remarked Jack, and Violet shook her head, her sword hand itching to do some fighting. Barbossa only smiled, attacking Jack with fresh aggressiveness.

Suddenly, a deafening noise came from behind Violet and Will, and they jumped out of the way as something thrown by a pirate exploded near them.

"Oh, come on," Violet said, rolling her eyes as they rushed the pirate, swords flashing in the dim cavern light. The pirate grinned at them and dodged their attacks as another man joined him, dripping wet from being previously thrown into the water. The four faced off, and the battle was even until Will was blown off his feet by another projectile thrown by the same pirate.

Violet watched helplessly, locked in combat, as Will's sword fell from his hand, and the pirate raised his sword above his struggling body.

"I'm gonna teach you the meaning of pain!" sneered the pirate, and Violet searched her brain for a plan to help him while still sword fighting with her opponent.

"You like pain?" came a voice from the side of the cave. Suddenly, Elizabeth Swann appeared, armed with a long wooden stick. Swiftly, she slammed it into the pirate, knocking him off his feet. "Try wearing a corset," she finished triumphantly.

Violet grinned, and with new inspiration, twisted her sword and slammed the hilt of it into her assailant's head, causing him to collapse on the ground.

"Bloody brilliant," she said to Elizabeth, interrupting the sickening look of love that was being passed from her to Will. She looked up at Violet, helping Will to his feet.

"Thank you," Elizabeth replied, dipping her head. "But-" she said, looking over at Jack, who was still fighting Barbossa, "whose side is Jack on?"

"Honestly, Elizabeth, there's no way to tell," Violet said, shaking her head, and Will shrugged in agreement.

Suddenly, Violet's pirate and Will's, along with another, quickly came at them, ready to attack. Will's pirate was armed with another bomb, ready to blast them all to pieces, and all three pirates were now terrifyingly skeletal.

Quickly, Elizabeth and Will ran towards them, parrying blows and using Elizabeth's weapon to hook all three together. He then thrust the bomb into the middle pirate's skeletal ribcage and pushed all three out of the moonlight, the bomb now sealed inside the pirate's chest.

He stared at Will, surprised, and cried out in agony.

"No fair!" he shouted, just as Will, Elizabeth and Violet dived away and the three pirates exploded into nothing.

Suddenly, from where Jack and Barbossa stood, Violet saw Jack toss the medallion to Will, who promptly caught it. Sensing this exchange, Barbossa turned, pistol exposed, and pointed it straight at Elizabeth, who froze, unsure of what to do, and Violet looked around for an option, maybe she could-

 _Bang._

A shot reverberated through the cave, and Violet turned immediately to Elizabeth, but it wasn't her who was injured.

There stood Jack, holding his smoking pistol, the one with only one shot, pointed straight at Barbossa.

"Ten years you carry that pistol, and now you waste your shot?" he laughed, mocking Jack, who didn't look concerned.

"He didn't waste it," came Will's voice, and Violet turned to see him standing above the Aztec chest, blood coating one hand and a knife in the other. Slowly, he opened his hand, and both Jack's and his medallion plummeted down into the chest, covered in his blood.

Suddenly, blood bloomed over Barbossa's shirt, a red flower slowly expanding its petals. Jack lowered his pistol slowly as Barbossa, disbelieving, stared down at himself, slowly dying.

"I feel- cold," he said quietly, and just like that, Captain Hector Barbossa fell to the ground of the Isla de Muerta, dead.

* * *

Violet leaned against a chest of treasure, her bloody sword on the ground next to her. In front of her, Will and Elizabeth were embracing, nearly close to kissing, when Jack promptly dropped some of the treasure he was hauling onto the ground, jolting them apart.

She closed her eyes, folding her hands behind her head. If anyone was clueless, it was Jack. She couldn't believe that Barbossa, the great pirate captain was dead. And what now? Where would she go? Would she truly go back to being trapped on another island, stealing and bartering for passage?

"I did a fair job, didn't I, love?" asked a lilting voice, and Violet opened her eyes to see Jack standing in front of her. She didn't bother to stand up, or move her boots so he could come closer.

"I suppose you did, didn't you," she replied nonchalantly, and Jack grinned at that. The battle seemed to have wiped all feelings of resentment and shame from between them, at least for the time being. But she couldn't shake the horrible feeling that had come over her when she had thought Jack dead. If she ever had to lose him…

"Get yourself some treasure, savvy? I reckon you can buy a new ship with all this," he said, gesturing around him.

"Off to the Pearl, then?" she asked, slowly getting to her feet and ignoring the hand Jack stuck out to help her up. "Quit the gentlemanly act, Sparrow," she added, and he brought his hand back sharply, a hurt look on his face.

"Will you be joining me?" he asked quietly, and she turned to face him, their gazes locking.

"I don't have a ship, do I?" she said, a faint smile on her face, and Jack's face broke into a relieved grin that made her laugh. "For now, Sparrow. You're still just a temporary acquaintance."

Suddenly, Jack seemed to remember something, and he reached inside his coat to reveal a wrinkled, sandy hat that matched the one on his own head. Her hat.

"Found this on the island," he said, holding it out to her, and she took it with a grin before putting it over her tangled curls.

And as they stood there, surrounded by the glow of a thousand coins, Violet wished she could bottle this moment and never let it go.

* * *

The happy moment was over.

Violet was furious, digging her fingers into her sack of treasure as she glared out at what was in front of her. Or rather, what _wasn't_ in front of her. The Black Pearl was gone.

Jack, armed with his own sack of treasure, Will, and Elizabeth sat in the rowboat along with her. Jack simply looked sadly out at the empty ocean, and Elizabeth turned sorrowfully to him.

"I'm sorry, Jack," she said softly, but Jack simply shook his head.

"They done what's right by them. Can't expect more than that," he said with a melancholy air, and both Violet and Will shook their heads incredulously.

"Of course you can. Those damn idiots will pay when I get my hands on them," Violet growled, staring menacingly out at the ocean.

"But you won't," Will said, scowling. "The Pearl is the fastest ship in the Caribbean."

"You underestimate me, Will. None of that crew will be safe when I get back to them. And I will," she swore, and she turned to Jack, who was still looking longingly out at the ocean.

She would find the Pearl again. There was no doubt in her mind about that.


	10. Farewell

Death was something that was on every pirate's name. If it wasn't, you were either too sane or completely insane. And Violet was no exception. But never in a million years had she dreamed that her death would be hanging at the hands of British soldiers.

Violet and Jack stood on a gallows, their wrists bound and twin nooses around their necks. Underneath them, the trapdoor that would send them plunging to their grisly fate was being checked by an executioner.

"Going together then, are we?" muttered Jack, and when she turned to face him, his eyes still held their familiar gleam.

"So cheerful in the face of death," she said, rolling her eyes, and Jack grinned.

"What's the point in being cowardly, love? I've got Captain Coldblood by me side," he said with a smile, and Violet felt herself smile against her will. It was the worst kind of smile, too, small and sweet and blushing.

"Jack Sparrow and Violet Charles," announced an official from beside them, holding a long list of their crimes, "be it known that you have been charged, tried, and convicted…"

Immediately Violet and Jack blanched, and she rapped loudly on the wood pole beside them, getting the attention of the official.

"It's Captain. Captain Violet Charles," she demanded, and the official simply shot her a nervous look before continuing.

"For your willful commission of crimes against the crown. Said crimes being numerous in quantity and sinister in nature The most aggrieves of which to be cited herewith- Piracy, smuggling…" The man droned on and on, and Violet yawned loudly.

In front of her, a large crowd of excited Port Royal locals was gathered, and her eyes went immediately to Governor Swann standing protectively next to Elizabeth. Commodore Norrington stood near them, his eyes locked on Violet. She met his stare, and his face showed a flicker of sorrow before transforming back into his usual stoic expression.

Suddenly, she caught sight of Will, who was slowly snaking through the crowd, his eyes darting around. To be completely honest, she didn't know why he wasn't arrested. All she knew was that Norrington was dead the next time she saw him. If there was a next time she saw anything.

"Mr. Sparrow, you have been accused of impersonating a person of the Spanish Royal Navy, impersonating a cleric of the Church of England, sailing under false colors, kidnapping, looting, poaching…" Jack snickered at these words, and Violet turned to him, confused.

"Did you really?"

"You doubt me?" he asked with mock hurt, and she rolled her eyes. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Will moving past Elizabeth, and as she was about to turn, Jack reached forward with bound hands and gripped hers.

"Jack-" she said suddenly, moving to pull away, but his grip was firm.

"If this is where I meet the end, I at least want to go after saying this," Jack said, his face serious, and Violet couldn't drag her gaze away from his dark eyes. "Violet, I love-"

Suddenly, chaos erupted through the crowd, and Violet and Jack broke apart immediately Elizabeth was lying unconscious in Norrington's arms, and Will was rushing over towards the gallows.

"What in the-" she began, but a flash of black caught her eye as the executioner started to pull the lever that would kill them both. "Wait!"

She watched helplessly as Will threw open his coat to reveal two swords on either end of his belt. Quickly, he drew them both, and with expert skill he threw the two weapons with a flick of his wrists, sending them both speeding toward the trapdoor. Just as he did so, the door opened, and Violet and Jack were sent plummeting downwards.

She fumbled, her hands clawing at the rope, but Will's swords embedded into the door just in time, and she managed to land on one of the swords, Jack beside her, the two of them dancing on the metal in an attempt to balance.

The rope cut into her skin, making it hard for her to breathe, and she could barely make out Will battling the executioner through her swimming vision. Just as her balance was about to give out, something slashed through the rope above her, and both she and Jack tumbled to the ground.

Jack reached up and cut the rope from his hands on one of the exposed blades, and Violet did the same. Quickly, they raced out from underneath the gallows as Will jumped down to join them, and the three of them snatched the noose from the gallows. They sprinted into the crowd, and managed to trip a few marines who were running towards them.

They darted to the left, but suddenly, soldiers came up in front of them.

"Right!" Violet called, and they turned sharply, only to find more soldiers awaiting them. The men brought up their rifles, and Jack, Will, and Violet found themselves cornered.

Norrington, flanked by Elizabeth and Governor Swann strode up to them, pointing his sword menacingly.

"I thought we might have to endure some ill-conceived manner of escape attempt. But not from you," he said coldly to Will, who simply glared at him.

"On our return to Port Royal I granted you clemency, and this is how you thank me? By throwing in your lot with them? They are pirates!" shouted Governor Swann, outraged, but Will shot him a hard stare.

"Yes, pirates. But Jack is a good man. And if you-" he said, turning to Norrington, "were even half as brilliant as Violet, we would all be dead already. If all I have achieved here is that the hangman will earn three pairs of boots instead of two- so be it. At least my conscience will be clear."

"You forget your place, Turner," sneered Norrington, and Violet scoffed. Will, however, smiled softly, and looked around.

"It's right here - between you and Violet," he said with a grin, winking at Violet as he turned. She shot him her best wicked grin, and Jack muttered something like 'what about me' to himself.

All of a sudden, Elizabeth stepped into the ring of soldiers and slid her hand into Will's, staring defiantly at them.

"As is mine," she said softly, and she too turned to smile at Violet.

"Elizabeth," breathed her father, but she stood firm. Norrington's face fell as he stared at their linked hands, and Elizabeth's father turned to stare at him.

"Lower your weapons! For goodness sake, put them down!" he shouted frantically, and Norrington reluctantly gave the signal to his men. Slowly, they lowered their rifles.

"So this is where your heart truly lies, then?" he asked, eyes full of sadness.

"It is," said Elizabeth quietly, and the two stared at each other, silent words passing between them. Beside her, Violet saw Jack turn to the sea- and the two of them spotted it at the same time. Cotton's parrot.

"Here's the part where you let her go, Commodore," Violet said, and Norrington turned to her. "Need me to help you find the words?"

"How dare-"

"Yes, yes, how dare I be such a horrible, idiotic, utterly disgusting _pirate_. Well, surprise, Commodore, but I am one. And it seems that Elizabeth might be on her way to becoming one too," she said, and Norrington stared at her warily.

"Well, I'm actually feeling rather good about this. I think we've all arrived at a very special place, eh? Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically," Jack said, interrupting their staring contest. "I want you to know that I was rooting for you, mate. Know that," he said to Norrington, who glared darkly at him. "Elizabeth, it would never have worked between us, darling. I'm sorry."

"That's a good thing. You don't want to get to know Sparrow more than you have to," Violet added to Elizabeth, who smiled and shook her head at them.

"Will…" Jack said, turning to the boy, "Nice hat."

Suddenly he was looking at her, and it was like the whole world silenced around them. There was no Port Royal, no Commodore, no Will or Elizabeth. It was her and Jack and a sea of unmade decisions.

"Well, love? Are you coming?" he asked, and she felt a tug at her heart. She was pulled to him, she knew it, drawn like a moth to a flame and she couldn't stop it. But to sail with him- he wasn't good. She knew it. If she- cared for him, he would break her. He would betray her and snap her into pieces over and over again even if he didn't plan to. It was his nature.

"Jack, I- I can't," she said softly, staring at the ground. She was vaguely aware of the eyes on them, but nothing distracted her from the hurt that flashed painfully across Jack's face.

"Why?" he asked quietly, but she simply shook her head, forcing herself to meet his gaze.

"I want to, Jack, I do, but I can't trust you. I just can't. And I'm a bloody pirate captain, I should be able to get my own ship back," she said with a dry laugh, tears springing to her eyes, and Jack slowly reached for her hand.

He pressed something small and round and cold into her palm, and when she unfolded her fist, a small coin lay in her palm.

"A piece of eight," she said quietly, and they stared down at it.

"It's all I had in my pocket," he admitted, and she let out a choked laugh, running her finger over the ridges. "But, love, I'd cross any sea to get to you if you needed me. I know I don't have your trust, but I'll get it back someday, all by me lonesome. So don't forget me, savvy?"

She stared at him, the words sounding like they were from a different person. This wasn't the Jack she knew. And she didn't think she hated that.

"I could never," she said, smiling, and she took a step closer to him. Suddenly, he slipped an arm around her waist and leaned down, his face inches from hers.

"You had better not," he whispered, and then he was kissing her.

His lips tasted like salt and rum, and she leaned into him, her heart singing. Fireworks exploded in her head, and she gripped the neckline of his coat, her hair falling down to frame her face. This was real. This was Captain Jack Sparrow, her enemy, her friend, her temporary acquaintance, who- loved her.

This love was raw and dangerous, but where Jack Sparrow went, wasn't everything? She didn't know how she felt about him, but as he held her, there was nothing else in the world that she wanted more than this.

Slowly, they broke apart, but Jack still held his arm around her waist, staring into her eyes.

"I'll see you again, Captain," Jack said, slowly stepping away from her, and she willed herself not to cry. She was Captain Coldblood, and she could do this. She could.

"Goodbye, Jack," she said as he stepped onto the wall, and the two of them turned to face the surprised faces of Elizabeth, Will, and Norrington.

"Friends, this is the day you will always remember as the day that you-" Jack began before tumbling off of the wall. Quickly, they all raced to the edge, staring down into the churning waves below. She could see him surface, a small dot against the blue, and one of the soldiers scoffed.

"Idiot. He's nowhere to go but back to the noose," a soldier said, and Violet was tempted to skewer him when suddenly something caught her eye. The Black Pearl, bursting into view and sailing majestically towards him. She couldn't help herself from smiling. She'd known she would see it again.

While the men were distracted, she slipped down the stairs, away from the fort and down to the docks. There was bound to be some ship to steal.

As she made her way down the stairs, she caught Elizabeth's eye, the only one to notice her, and the two women exchanged a look.

 _Thank you_ , Elizabeth mouthed, and Violet smiled, nodding solemnly.

Then she was gone, down to the docks of Port Royal and whatever awaited her there.

* * *

Violet threw the hood of her black cloak from her head, revealing her face and letting her hair spill across her shoulders. The rest of the ship's crew had gone to sleep below deck, and Violet was alone, shrouded in darkness and night and the cloak that hid her sword and the hat that Jack had given her all those years ago.

It was a small merchant ship, one she had only managed to get on board by pretending to be a penniless widow who needed passage. The crew members were kind people, disgustingly kind, who were more than willing to help the young widow.

They had asked her for a name.

Katherine Sparrow, she had told them.

Funny name, they had said. Sounded like a pirate's.

She stared out at the dark, moonlit sea, and wondering if the Pearl sailed these same waters. In her hand, she rolled the coin back and forth between her fingers, trying to figure out where to go from here.

She had no obligations, no possessions, and no one out there for her. It was somehow freeing, knowing that she was completely alone, just like she was used to being.

But even though she was here, alone, starting over, something inside her still pulled towards Jack, wherever he was.

And she knew, as she clutched the piece of eight in her hand, that she'd see Captain Jack Sparrow again. After all, they were bound to each other, by the sea that ran through their cold, cold blood.

 **A/N: And that's the end of the first movie! Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading this story, and I hope you've enjoyed what's happened so far! i'm hoping to continue to the second movie, so I'll hopefully be posting the first chapter of that soon. Please review and keep reading because there is still so much left for Violet and Jack :)**


	11. Another Adventure

"Oy! Miss Sparrow!"

Violet Charles turned to see the young merchant, Mr. Barclay, beckoning her away from the side of the boat. She walked over to him, her respectable shoes clicking on the deck beneath her.

She was currently dressed in an extravagant gown, her cloak, cutlass, and hat stored by her bunk underneath the deck. She had managed to steal the dress off a storekeeper before boarding the merchant ship, which was three weeks before. The merchants would hardly believe her story if she came in dressed like a pirate. She hated the dress, and every minute spent in it was another test of her willpower to see whether or not she would rip it up into shreds.

"Yes, Mr. Barclay?" she asked politely, injecting a tinge of a noblewoman's accent into her words. She had been on this blasted boat for a year now, and she was sick and tired of being Katherine Sparrow.

"Please, how many times must I tell you to call me Samuel?" Mr. Barclay asked, and Violet let out a tinkling laugh. She'd been working on that, too.

"I suppose I shall, Samuel, if you will call me Katherine," she said pleasantly, and the young man gave her a kind smile that made her want to claw her eyes out.

"Very well then, Katherine. I just wished to inform you that we will be navigating through some dangerous territory, and so you should prepare yourself for a possible encounter of pirates," Samuel said gravely. Violet put a hand to her mouth to hide her sudden outburst of laughter, quickly twisting it into a gasp.

"Pirates?" she asked, and Samuel nodded.

"Do not worry, madam. We will do our best to make the passage safely," he said reassuringly, and Violet nodded.

"Of course. You have my full confidence," she said sweetly before turning back to the railing of the boat. She knew these seas, just as she had this entire voyage. They were in pirate waters, and she knew exactly where.

They were nearing Tortuga.

She had to get off the boat, but she had no idea how. Katherine, the charming, meek widow would have no reason to want to visit Tortuga, especially not with all the disgusting pirates that swarmed the place.

Finally, Violet decided that, Katherine or not, she would get to that damned island one way or the other.

* * *

By the time the boat sailed past Tortuga, it was well into the afternoon, the sun shining hot and bright in the sky. All four merchants were milling about on deck now, all on guard with their cargo stored far below deck.

Violet had gathered her clothes, sword, and hat in a black satchel she had found below deck, and had slung it over the shoulder of her long dress. There was no time to change. She had to act now, or they'd miss Tortuga.

"Excuse me!" she called, attracting the attention of all four pirates. "Can I trouble you with a request?"

"Of course, ma'am," one of the merchants said, and Violet sighed dramatically, pointing to Tortuga as they neared the port.

"Would it be a bother to you to drop me off there?" she asked, and the men gave each other confused looks.

"Trust me, Katherine, you don't want to go there," Samuel said, shaking his head. "That's Tortuga, and it's filled straight to the brim with pirates."

"Please, Samuel, could you do this for me?" she crooned, batting her eyelashes, and Samuel cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Er- I suppose, but it's far too dangerous-" he began, but she cut him off.

"That's not a problem. I'm craving a little adventure after a year spent confined to the deck," she said with a smile, and the men turned to each other, shrugging.

Minutes later, she was standing alone on the Tortuga docks, waving to the merchants as they sailed away. She had ignored Samuel's incessant warnings of the dangers and the pirates and had finally extracted herself from the man by practically jumping off the boat onto land.

There she was, her satchel in hand, back on her least favorite island in the whole world with nothing to her name but a coin. She gripped said piece of eight in her hand, trying to remember the feel of Jack's fingers on her own.

"I'm sorry to bother you, sir, but do you know the whereabouts of Captain Jack Sparrow?"

Violet stopped in her tracks, searching for the speaker. Did she hear correctly? The voice sounded so familiar…

"Cannot say about Jack Sparrow. But dere's a island, just south of de straits, where I trade spice for... mmm... delicious long pork. Cannot say about Jack. But you find a ship dere. A ship wit' black sails."

This was a different voice, and Violet found the speaker easily: a large shrimper mending his nets as he lounged on the dock. But who was he speaking to?

Then she spotted him.

William Turner, looking hilariously out of place in the midst of all these pirates. He shifted from foot to foot, his brow creased in worry. Why in the seven seas was he looking for Jack?

"Will!" she shouted, sprinting over to him. Will turned, startled, his face utterly confused as she ran towards him.

"Who…" he began, but as Violet landed in front of him and stared into his warm brown eyes, recognition dawned on his face. "Violet?"

"What are you doing here?" she asked, grinning wildly. But the boy looked more serious then she had seen him before, like something weighed heavily upon his shoulders. He was more a man than a boy by now, really. "I would have thought you'd be married by now."

"What are you wearing?" Will asked, ignoring her words and staring questioningly at her garments. It was then that Violet remembered her cumbersome dress, which was adorned in ruffles and hanging in heavy folds around her figure. Groaning, she kicked the tiny shoes she had stolen with the dress into the ocean and dug around in her satchel for her boots.

"That's much better," she said, slipping them on over her feet.

"Interesting fashion choice," Will commented, and she glared at him.

"If you'd known what I have had to endure, William, you would not be saying that," she said with a glare, but Will was just staring at the dress, completely confused. "I had to steal it to board a merchant ship, alright? They never would have believed my story otherwise."

"And what story was that?" he asked her casually, and she rolled her eyes, not wanting to relive a single minute of the experience.

"That I was a poor widow in need of passage across the ocean. They ate it up, of course. There's no way they would have believed Violet Charles, but _Katherine Sparrow_ -" she quickly cut herself off, and a smile broke across Will's face.

"Katherine Sparrow, eh?" he asked, and Violet glared at him.

"It was the first thing that came into my head," she said defiantly, and he nodded mockingly.

"Of course it was," Will said, and she sighed, turning away from him.

"But you haven't answered my question yet, William," she said, and now it was his turn to look deflated and let out a heavy sigh.

"There's much to say," he said, and Violet folded her arms.

"I've got plenty of time."

"I was set to marry Elizabeth," he began, and Violet clapped excitedly. "But our celebrations were interrupted when a man named Cutler Beckett-"

"You're joking," Violet said, stopping him.

"Do you know him?" Will asked, and Violet groaned, putting a hand on her forehead in frustration.

"Cutler _Beckett_ ," she said, spitting his last name with malice, "was the one who got me imprisoned three years ago and got me on the same ship as Jack in the first place. He's a dirty bastard who'll stop at nothing until he gets what he wants."

"He had four warrants for arrest. Two for me and Elizabeth, and two for you and Jack," Will said with worry on his face. "I made a, er, bargain with him in order to free Elizabeth, and in order to fulfill my end I need to find him. And you, actually."

"What sort of bargain?" Violet asked, knowing full well that Will was leaving plenty out of his little explanation.

"I- I can't tell you, Captain. But if you would come with me-" Violet held up a hand to silence him, giving him a dark look.

"You'd turn me in? After all I've done for you?" she said angrily, and Will hung his head.

"He'd kill her, Captain. He'd kill Elizabeth," Will said sadly, and Violet rolled her eyes at his pitiful display. There was no way she was going back to the hands of Cutler Beckett. Not in this world or the next.

"And I'll kill you before I go back to Cutler Beckett," she hissed, and Will blanched at her words. She didn't regret them. The boy had overstepped his boundaries.

"Please, Captain. At least help me find Jack. You know the man far better than I do," Will pleaded, and she stared at him, the name ringing in her ears. _Jack._ It had been a year since she'd last seen Captain Jack Sparrow, and not a day went by that she didn't think about him. She hated it.

"What makes you think I'd want to see him?" she said coldly, and Will looked into her eyes, confusion on her face.

"Well, when you two said goodbye, you certainly-"

"Do shut up, Will, while you still can," she growled, and he quickly shut his mouth. She sighed, staring out at the lapping waves below the dock. Would she really find herself swept up in another adventure with Jack and the trouble that always seemed to find him? She wanted it, yes, her blood sang at the thought of it. But it had been hard enough to leave him the first time. Should she just throw away the year of agony on that merchant ship she had put herself through, telling herself that the longer she was away from him, the better?

"What is it you need from Jack?" she said finally, and Will looked up eagerly, ready to make his case.

"To convince him to return to Port Royal. You as well. In exchange, Beckett promises to drop the charges against Elizabeth and I," Will said earnestly, and Violet groaned, running a hand through her tangled hair.

"It's a death trap," she groaned, shaking her head. "Jack will never bite."

"I have to try, Captain. And if you help me, I'll do everything in my power to convince Beckett to drop charges against you. And get you a ship," Will added, and Violet perked up. A ship?

"What if I walk away now? Beckett wouldn't find me," she said coldly, and Will threw up his hands in frustration.

"Maybe not. But where would you go? You have no ship, no crew, just a list of enemies. Please, Captain. If not for me, then for Elizabeth," Will begged, and Violet contemplated his words. Maybe she could kill Beckett once she was delivered to him. For that, she would pay all the treasure in the Isla de Muerta.

"If I am taken back into Beckett's custody, I will end you," she said darkly, and Will grinned, practically skipping with delight.

"Thank you, Captain!" he chirped, and Violet rolled her eyes, furious with herself. She was a fool. But wasn't she always when it came to Captain Jack?

* * *

Violet and Will sat in a small rowboat next to a tall sailor, Violet's dress taking up half the vessel. She hadn't had time to change yet, and the rocking of the boat on the waves made her long for her trousers as she was jostled around.

"Ne bougeais pas, c'set beaucoup trop dangereaux," babbled the sailor, and Violet rolled her eyes, glaring at him.

"What in the seven seas are you _saying_?" she groaned, exasperated, and the sailor shot her a dirty look.

"Je ne pois, c'est trop dangereaux, j'avais le dit," he spat at her, and she narrowed her eyes, ready to fight, but Will put a hand on her arm.

"Come on. I think he's saying we have to get out," he clarified, and Violet shook her head.

"Do you expect me to swim in this thing?" she demanded, holding up a fold of fabric from her elaborate gown. "I'll drown."

"You'll be fine," Will said, and before she could pull her cutlass out and run him through with it, Will Turner dragged her out of the rowboat and into the churning ocean below.

 **A/N: Hello everyone! I'm so excited to finally be posting the beginning of Dead Man's Chest! To all those of you who have reviewed: Thank you, thank you, thank you! It may not seem like a lot but it means so much to me and your support is what motivates me to put out more chapters! To those who haven't, please consider reviewing as I would love to hear your feedback. I hope you enjoy this chapter :) -EverSparrow**


	12. Cannibals?

Violet pulled herself up off of the wet sand, the sea water burning her throat as she spluttered.

"You're a dead man, Will Turner," she hissed as she made her way over to Will, who was snickering to himself on the dry land in front of her.

"I'm deeply sorry, Captain," he said dryly, and she punched him in the arm, causing him to wince and grab at his shoulder.

"Where is the groveling respect you had an hour ago?" she asked, narrowing her eyes, and Will shrugged, still holding his aching limb. "Although I do like it when you call me Captain."

"Does that mean I am forgiven?" Will asked her, and she sighed dramatically.

"I suppose so, but the next time you throw me into the ocean I will kill you," Violet added, and Will grinned at her. She gathered up the folds of her cumbersome dress, and the two of them strode across the beach, calling out the names of every member of Jack's crew they could think of.

Suddenly, there it was: the Black Pearl, beached on the sand and looking as majestic as always. She wondered what had happened to the crew. What had happened to Jack.

"He's fine, Violet," Will said, as if reading her mind. She shook herself out of her trance and turned to him, pasting a grin on her face.

"I'm sure he is. Jack Sparrow has a knack for cheating death," she smirked, and Will turned away towards the jungle that skirted the beach. Violet wasn't sure whether he bought her words or not.

She followed him into the jungle, tearing her gaze away from the Pearl, and almost immediately, she spotted a very familiar bird. Cotton's parrot.

"Awk, don't eat me!" it chirped, and she tilted her head, confused.

"We're not going to eat you," said Will, and Violet rolled her eyes, brushing past him deeper into the jungle.

"Probably just another stupid thing the poor mute taught the dumb creature to say. You know, if I had a parrot, I'd teach it all the swears-" Suddenly Violet spotted something, cutting off her words. There, hanging on a rope tied to a tree, was Gibbs' canteen. The last time she'd seen that she'd been locked up in a cell with Jack.

"What the-" she said, her voice trailing off as she followed the rope it was tied to, Will in tow. They walked deeper and deeper into the jungle, and Violet was just about to say something to Will when suddenly, something cinched around her foot and sent her swinging upwards into the trees, her dress billowing out behind her and her satchel falling to the ground. She was suddenly grateful for her decision to wear her trousers under the gown, and she flailed around in the air, swearing loudly.

All of a sudden, through her upside-down vision, she could see a ring of people surrounding them, dressed in feathers and bright colors with colorful paint all over their faces and limbs. Violet had no doubt that they were cannibals.

"Do something, you idiot!" Violet screamed at Will, who fumbled for his sword, but the cannibals simply looked at each other in confusion. Violet itched for her swords, despising how helpless she was, and she had just started to attempt to swing towards one of the cannibals when a sharp pain exploded at her neck. She slapped a hand to her skin and felt a dart embedded into her skin.

"Damn," she whispered, and suddenly she was plunged into darkness.

* * *

When Violet awoke, she was tied to a stick by her wrists and ankles and being carried up a trail towards a small village. Cannibals were lifting the stick, their brisk pace causing her to rock vigorously, and she vowed to slaughter them all once she was free.

Beside her, Will was being carried the same way, trussed up like an animal about to be roasted over a fire.

"Why didn't you kill them?" Violet spat at him, and he turned his head, noticing that she was awake.

"Sorry, Captain," he said apologetically, and she rolled her eyes, her heavy dress weighing her down and making her whole body jolt with every step the cannibals took.

They reached the village and were brought before the chief of the tribe, who was lounging on a throne in front of them.

"Let me go now and I won't slaughter your whole village," Violet called over the language of the cannibals as they addressed their chief, and her vision focused as they stopped moving. Suddenly, she drew in a sharp breath as she recognized who the man was. "Jack?"

There he was: Captain Jack Sparrow, dressed in his usual attire with a familiar look of confusion and confidence mixed on his face. The only difference was some bizzare paint across his cheeks. What had he gotten himself mixed up in?

"Jack, it's us! Will and Violet!" Will shouted, but Jack simply walked over to him and poked his shoulder.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Sparrow? Set us free!" Violet shouted, and something flashed over Jack's face as he moved over to Violet.

Then he started babbling in some strange language to the cannibals, having a conversation that no doubt included Violet and Will's fate. Classic Jack. The cannibals nodded in recognition at his commands, obviously eating up every word he said. Him and his damn charisma.

"Jack, the compass, it's all I need. Elizabeth is in danger. We were arrested for trying to help you. She faces the gallows!" chirped Will frantically.

"Jack doesn't care about that, does he?" Violet sneered, and Jack pretended to think for a moment before spewing more gibberish and waving them away. The cannibals began to chant, and Violet glared at Jack as they were brought away. He leaned down next to Will, mouthing _Save me_! before turning to Violet.

"Please help me," he whispered, and she gave him a dark look as she was taken away. At least she knew one thing hadn't changed over the year they'd been apart. That Jack Sparrow was still getting himself into messes he couldn't seem to get out of.

* * *

Violet and Will stood in a bone cage, suspended in between two cliffs. All around them, members of Jack's crew were crouched alongside them, another cage hanging beside theirs.

"Why would he do this to us? If Jack is the chief-" demanded Will, obviously just as furious as Violet was.

"Aye. The Pelegostos have made Jack their chief. But he only remains chief as long as he acts like a chief," clarified Gibbs, who was trapped in the cage with them.

"So he had no choice. He's a captive there as much as the rest of us," mused Will, and Violet snorted loudly.

"Of course he had a choice, Turner. He chose to save his own skin and lounge about eating humans while we're stuck here in this stupid cage," she sneered, and Gibbs shook his head, staring out past the cage to whatever lay below them.

"No, no, he has it worse than us, Captain. You see, the Pelegostos believe that Jack is a god in human form. And they intend to do 'im the honor of releasing him from his fleshy prison. They'll roast him and eat him," said Gibbs in a low voice, and while Will looked shocked, Violet threw her head back and laughed loudly.

"I hope they do!" she yelled, shaking her head. "Heaven knows he deserves it."

"You know, I'm very much confused by what is going on between you two," Will said, giving Violet a sharp look. "One minute you're kissing and then the next you're plotting to kill him." Violet glared at him, and Gibbs looked shocked.

"Am I to understand you kissed-"

"Enough about the kiss!" Violet said, groaning audibly. "William, you'd do well to mind your own business. And what we should all be focusing on _instead_ is getting out of here."

"The rest of the crew's been killed, and we've got no one on the outside but for Jack, who'll be dead when the drums stop," Gibbs said ominously, and Violet threw up her hands.

"Oh come on, Gibbs, when have I ever relied on Jack for anything? I'm a better Captain than him anyway," she said, jutting out her chin, and Will shrugged.

"She's right. We can't just sit here and wait," he agreed, and Violet grinned.

"I've got an idea."

Twenty minutes had passed before the crew had finally managed to make the cages move, and with each swing they got higher and higher. They tried to grab the mountain in front of them, but the grass tore off in their hands.

"This time!" Violet shouted, and they all grappled at the wall, latching onto vines hanging against the rock.

"Put your legs through! Start the climb!" Gibbs called, and the two cages full of crew members started to rise up the mountain, pulling themselves up with as much strength as they could muster.

"Come on, men! It'll take all of us to crew the Black Pearl!" called Will, and Violet gave him an angry look until he understood her objective. "And women!" he added.

"Six or seven would be sufficient," she scoffed, and then realized the effect of her words. Both groups turned to look at each other, and the race was on.

"Hurry!" shouted Will, and the crew of the their cage grunted, using every ounce of strength they had.

Suddenly, Will motioned for them to stop, and they all turned to see a young cannibal boy marching across the bridge to their left. The other cage, however, continued to move quietly up the rock, until suddenly, shouts of "Snake!" and screams caused them to fall, the rope snapping from the momentum.

"Damn," Violet swore, watching the pirates tumble down to the ravine below, their screams catching the attention of the native. "Go, go!" she shouted, and the pirates began to move again, as fast as they could manage.

Finally, they reached the top, searching desparately for a rock as cannibals rushed towards them. It was too late, and they quickly began to roll the cage across the dirt.

"Lift it like a lady's skirt!" Gibbs shouted, pointing to Violet's dress, and the men lifted the cage and took off running, the cannibals pursuing them. Suddenly, they fell into a crag leading to water, causing the cage to shatter and sending them tumbling into the river below.

"This way!" Gibbs called again, and Violet swam for cover, her awful gown billowing in the water around her. Quickly, they all hid as the cannibals rushed past, panting loudly. Violet exhaled, slumping against the wall. They were safe. For now.

* * *

The crew sprinted towards the Pearl, Violet along with them. She crawled onto the deck, wet and looking like a disaster as she stood up.

Two pirates from Barbossa's crew were milling about, and she recognized them as the two that had first spotted her and Jack all that time ago at the Isla de Muerta.

"How did you two get here?" she demanded, and the two of them gave her weak smiles, shrugging.

"We got the boat ready for you! Knew you'd be coming back for it," one of them explained, and Violet shook her head, sighing.

"Make ready to sail!" she called, and the remaining crew members scattered across the deck, taking their positions.

"What about Jack?" asked Will determinedly, and Violet was about to say something when there he was, sprinting around the bend of the beach, chased by a whole army of cannibals.

"Cast off!" Violet called frantically, and the men brought the boat out to sea as Jack clambered in, the cannibals running in the other direction by some miracle. He was wet, panting, and tired, with paint running down his face, but it was unmistakably Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Let's head to open sea before the cannibals come back!" Violet shouted to the crew, ignoring Jack as the two pirates put his coat over his shoulders.

"Yes to both, but let's keep to the shallows," he said loudly, and Violet gave him a withering look.

"Now that seems a bit contradictory, Captain," Gibbs said, and Violet was grateful that she didn't have to talk to Jack.

"I have every faith in your reconciliatory navigational skills, Master Gibbs. After all, Captain Charles seems like she's rather eager to help. Now, where is that monkey? I want to shoot something," Jack demanded, brushing past Violet without a second thought. Her heart twinged, and somehow she felt like this was even worse than having to speak to him.

"Jack," said Will, and Jack winced, turning to him.

"Ah," he replied, and Violet rolled her eyes and Will made his way over to him.

"Elizabeth is in danger," Will said determinedly, and Jack waved a hand, walking over in search of the monkey.

"Have you considered keeping a more watchful eye on her? Maybe just lock her up somewhere?" Jack suggested, and Will shook his head angrily.

"She _is_ locked up in a prison, bound to hang for helping you!" he shouted, but Jack didn't care.

"There comes a time when one must take responsibility for one's mistakes," he said passively, and Will snapped. He rushed at Jack, holding a sword to his throat.

"I need that compass of yours, Jack. I must trade it for her freedom," he demanded through gritted teeth, but Jack just pushed the sword away.

"And what of Violet? Does she just get to walk away free?" he asked, pointing at her, and Will paused, unsure of what to say. "Ah, just as I thought. What is she doing here with you, anyway?" No one answered Jack's question, and he nodded to himself, turning to Gibbs. "Mr. Gibbs? We have a need to travel upriver."

"What for?" Violet asked, annoyed. She had known getting Jack to Port Royal wouldn't be easy, but Jack didn't seem to even want to look at her, let alone speak to her.

"You are not the Captain on this vessel, and you will not question my decisions, savvy?" said Jack fiercely, looking straight at her for the first time in a year. "As for you, William, I will trade you the compass if you help me find this." He pulled out a drawing of a key and handed it to Will, who looked utterly confused.

"You want me to find this," Will repeated, shaking his head.

"Yes, yes, Will, he does. Don't question his decisions. He's the _Captain_ , remember?" Violet said sourly, but Jack didn't even glance back at her.

"Is this going to save Elizabeth?" Will asked, and Jack thought for a moment.

"How much do you know about Davy Jones?" he asked, and Violet put a hand to her mouth. _Davy Jones?_

"Not much," Will admitted, and Jack grinned.

"Then yeah, it's going to save Elizabeth."

Violet waited until all the crew members were busy to approach Jack. She didn't want to, but she didn't have much choice if they had any hope of getting him to Port Royal.

"What business do you have with Davy Jones?" she asked him, and he turned from the railing of the ship to face her.

"What business do you have here?" he shot back, and she stared at him, memorizing every detail of his face. She'd missed him. She hadn't wanted to admit it, but yes, she'd missed him.

"What if I missed you?" she asked, and he shook his head, her heart constricting at the sad look in his eyes.

"You wouldn't come back just for that, love," he said with a sad smile, and she moved to stand next to him at the edge of the Pearl, looking out at the water. "But I love the outfit. Nice of you to dress up for me."

Violet stared down at the dress she was wearing at shot him a glare.

"This was- I mean- It was only for-"

"You look like quite the noblewomen. A bit bedraggled, but-" he gave her an approving nod, and she punched him on the arm.

"Stop it, Sparrow," she demanded, and he grinned at her.

"You did miss me, didn't you?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"Absolutely not."

 **A/N: Long chapter this time! Enjoy :)**


	13. Tia Dalma

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I've been working on other stories. :)**

Violet sat in the rowboat next to Will, making sure to be on the boat that did not contain Jack. She had finally been able to change into her familiar clothes, her cutlass once again sheathed in her belt, but Jack's hat sat next to her on the bench. She wasn't sure if she was ready to put it on. For all that would mean. If it would mean anything at all.

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" demanded Will, and Violet laughed, causing him to turn to her with a confused look.

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean," she mimicked, shooting an acid-filled glare over at Jack in the other boat. Their seemingly jovial conversation had ended in a fight the previous night, with Jack yelling at her for 'making no sense' and her yelling at him for being a 'bloody idiot who only cares about saving his own ass'. It wasn't pretty, and the two weren't speaking to each other. "Because he's a coward. Afraid of Davy Jones' little pet, I'd reckon."

"And what's that?" Will asked her, and she lowered her voice mockingly.

"A terrible beast with giant tentacles that'll suck your skin off and crush you to pieces in minutes," she said, waving her fingers around, and Barbossa's pirates, whose names she had learned were Pintel and Ragetti, looked at each other in fear. "And because of Jack's idiocy, it's next target probably happens to be the good captain himself."

"How would you know that?" Gibbs asked her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Jack is easy to predict," she said matter-of-factly, and Will smiled, leaning towards her.

"Is he, now?" he asked teasingly, and she gave him a dark glare.

"It's not the time, Will," she said wearily, and Will's grin fell off his face. He gave her a concerned look, opening his mouth to say more, before quickly closing it and leaning back in the boat. "Where are we going, anyway?"

They were gliding down a dark river, trees and plants lining either side as they made their way further and further into the swamp.

"To visit her," Gibbs said mysteriously, and Violet bit her lip. There were many 'hers' Gibbs could be referring to, and Violet wasn't necessarily sure she wanted to know which one.

Suddenly, the boat bumped up against dry land, at the foot of a bedraggled looking hut. It was at that moment that Violet knew exactly which 'her' they were referring to.

"Is that jealousy I'm picking up, Captain?"

Violet paused midway out of the boat, turning to glare at Jack, who had an equally malicious expression on his face.

"The only thing I'm jealous of is Elizabeth Swann, actually. For one thing, she's far away from this disgusting place that we've found ourselves in. Oh, and you, which I'm sure she's glad for. Also, she's got her hands on that beautiful being over there," Violet quipped, pointing at Will with a smirk on her face. Jack's face darkened, and Will gave Violet a confused look.

"Where did that come from?" Jack spat, and Violet waved a hand, flashing a grin at Will.

"Who's jealous now?" she sneered, and Jack hissed, turning away from her and stomping up the steps to the small hut.

Will looked at Violet questioningly, but she waved him away, the grin slipping from her mouth as soon as Jack turned away. She didn't know why the two of them were like this. Will had been right. One minute she never wanted to leave him, and the next she wanted to push him into the ocean. But still, her heart clenched as she looked at his retreating form, and she couldn't push away the urge to wrap her arms around him and never let him go.

Slowly, she followed the rest of the pirates up the steps to the small hut, taking in the dismal setting of the dark swamp. The stairs creaked as she walked up them, wrinkling her nose at the humid air.

"You're doing it again," Will whispered from behind her as she opened the door and she turned back to him with a sharp look.

"Doing what?" she hissed, and Will shrugged.

"The thing with Jack," he clarified, and Violet shot him daggers with her eyes as she pushed open the door and shuffled into the hut.

The inside was even worse than the outside, lined with strange objects and lit with a dim glow that caught all the dirty corners of the hut. Violet could have sworn she saw something move in one of the jars.

And suddenly, she realized exactly who this was. She'd only heard of her in stories passed by drunken sailors, but the jars of animal parts gave it away. They could be human, actually, she really wasn't sure.

"Damn it, Sparrow! Why in the world did you bring us to her?" she demanded, and Jack gave her a mocking smile, obviously happy to have something that annoyed her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, love, is this not to your liking?" he said, stalking over to her, "Because if not, you're welcome to-"

"Jack Sparrow."

Both Violet and Jack turned to see a woman emerge from the shadows of the hut, a crooked grin on her face. She had long dreadlocks that cascaded down to her shoulders, and dress that seemed to be made of several scraps of fabric. And Violet knew exactly who she was, and that sent shivers down her spine.

"Tia Dalma," Jack crooned, opening his arms and pasting as mile onto his face. Violet folded her arms, glaring at the woman. Something about her rubbed Violet the wrong way.

"I always knowed the wind was going to blow you back to me one day," Tia Dalma said sweetly, sauntering over to Jack, and something cold filled Violet's heart as the two of them stared at each other. She wanted to throw herself in between Jack and Tia Dalma, pushing the woman away and claiming Jack for her own. But instead, she dug her fingernails into her palm and stayed in her corner of the room, breathing heavily.

Tia Dalma suddenly caught sight of Will, tilting her head.

"You have a touch a' destiny about you, William Turner," she said, and Will shifted his weight between his feet, looking very uncomfortable. "How about you and I-"

"Alright, Miss Dalma, I'm going to have to stop you right there," Violet found herself saying, and she pushed her way over next to Will. "I'm afraid young William here is already promised to a certain young lady, and I'm also sure you wouldn't want anything to do with him, when he's but a child."

Tia Dalma turned to her as Will hid behind her gratefully, brilliant with a sword but not when it came to women.

"Ah, hello, Violet," the woman said with a smile, looking between her and Jack. "I see you're back together with your ol' friend, aren't you, Jack."

"I wouldn't say that," Jack muttered from across the room, and Violet shot him a glare as Tia Dalma stared at her thoughtfully.

"Hmmm," Tia Dalma said with a glint in her eye. "If you say so."

Violet narrowed her eyes at the woman, who was giving her a big gap-toothed grin.

"But I see trouble in your future, Miss Coldblood," Tia Dalma said cautiously, and Violet looked at her, intrigued. "So ya might want to fix whatever you've got going on here…" The woman gestured between her and Jack again, and Violet sighed loudly, waving a hand.

"Listen, I'm sure you mean well, but we didn't come here for relationship advice. Instead, how about you help us, so we can leave this damned swamp and maybe-"

"What Violet _means_ to say is that we've come for help, and we've brought payment," Jack said, cutting in the middle of Violet's speech, and she crossed her arms angrily. She hated this place.

"I didn't mean that at all," she spat, and Tia Dalma chuckled to herself, sauntering over to the back of her hut.

"Well, what payment did ya bring us?" she drawled, and Jack beckoned for a large cage to be brought forth, containing that cursed monkey that was always running around destroying things. He pulled a gun from his belt and shot it a couple times, smiling all the while.

"See? An undead monkey. I'd reckon that's the best payment you've received yet," he said proudly, and Tia Dalma opened the door, sending the monkey sprinting out into the darkness of the hut.

"No!" Gibbs said, wincing and putting a hand to his forehead. "You've no idea how long it took us to catch that."

"We're looking for this-" Will said, pulling out the drawing Jack had given him and flattening it against the desk. "And what it goes to."

"The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?" Tia Dalma asked Jack, who shifted uncomfortably. Violet had forgotten about that blasted compass, but at the reminder, she was furious at Jack for not using it.

"Maybe. Why?" Jack muttered, and Tia Dalma grinned at him.

" Aah. Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants. Or do you know but are loath to claim it as your own. Your key go to a chest. And it is what lay inside the chest you seek. Don't it?" she asked him softly, and suddenly Jack looked at Violet, his features twisted in an emotion Violet couldn't recognize.

Behind her, pirates clamored over what could be inside it, throwing out their stupid guesses and suggestions, but Violet was trying to process Tia Dalma's words. If Jack didn't want whatever was in that chest, then what did he want?

"You know of Davy Jones, yes?" asked Tia Dalma, and the crew nodded. "A man of the sea. A great sailor. Until he run afoul of that which vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" Will asked naively, and Tia Dalma gave him a sickening smile.

"What indeed?" she crooned, and the pirates began to throw out their guesses again, every word sliding a little farther under Violet's skin.

"A woman!" she shouted finally, silencing all the pirates, and everyone turned to stare at her, concerned expressions on each face. "It's a woman, isn't it?"

"Very good, _Captain_ ," Tia Dalma said with a smile. "He fell in love."

"Mistake on his part," Violet said coldly, staring at the ground. "Love ruins everything."

"Some may say that," Tia Dalma continued, "but he never stopped loving her. And that pain caused by his love made him unable to live any longer."

"So what's in the chest?" Will asked, and Tia Dalma gave him a sharp look.

"Him heart," she said coldly, and the pirates looked at each other, confused.

"How?" Pintel asked, shaking his head. "He couldn't live, putting his heart in a chest. Could he?"

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings. And so, him carved out him heart, lock it down in a chest, and hide the chest from the world. The key he keep with him at all times," Tia Dalma said quietly.

"You knew this," Will demanded, turning to Jack, who shook his head.

"I did not. I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So, all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and take the good Captain with you, and save your bonnie lass, aye?" Jack said liltingly, but Will just shook his head.

"Let me see your hand," Tia Dalma demanded, and Jack's smile dropped from his face. He held out his good, non-bandaged hand, but Tia Dalma just shook her head, and he held out his other one reluctantly.

Violet sucked in a breath, staring at the large black spot across his palm.

"Damn it, Sparrow, I should have known you'd be stupid enough to make a bargain with the devil of the sea," she hissed, and Jack snatched his hand back, turning on her.

"Let's not have this discussion now, shall we?" he spat, and she rolled her eyes, turning away from him.

"Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you will be safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you," said Tia Dalma, interrupting the two of them, and she dug around in a corner, coming back up with a large jar of what looked like dirt.

"A jar of dirt? Are you joking?" Violet demanded, and Tia Dalma gave her a haughty look.

"It's not for you, Charles. And if you don't want it-" she said tauntingly, but Jack snatched it from her hands and held it close to him.

"No, thank you ever so much, love, I'll keep it safe and away from children," he said, throwing a dark look at Violet, who scowled.

"It seems we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman," Will said, and Violet shook her head, staring at him. Of all places, here they were, on their way to the ghost ship of the Caribbean. What had she gotten herself into?


	14. Ninety-Nine Souls

**A/N: I just watched Dead Man's Chest again so I've got a better sense of these scenes now. :D Hope you enjoy the chapter! Thanks for all your reviews :)**

"That's the Flying Dutchman?"

Will pointed out into the middle of the wild sea, his hair and skin drenched from the pouring rain. Violet walked towards him and Jack from below deck, wondering if they'd really found the cursed ship. When she saw the wreck Will was pointing at, she frowned immediately. She wasn't an expert, but there was no way in the seven seas that ship was the fabled Flying Dutchman. What was Jack playing at?

"Will, that's-" she began, but Jack snatched her arm, pulling her away from Will and Gibbs.

"Excuse me, love, can we chat for a minute?" he said quietly, giving Will a fake smile. "Gibbs, ask the boy about his plan." Will looked genuinely confused, as did Gibbs, who quickly began stumbling through his words. It was Gibbs' flustered state that confirmed Violet's suspicions. Gibbs always knew what to say.

"What are you doing?" Violet demanded, wrenching her arm out of Jack's grip once they were out of earshot. "That's not the Dutchman."

"You know that, and I know that, and Gibbs knows that, but Will doesn't," Jack said quietly, staring warily at Will and Gibbs. "Violet, please, I know you and I aren't on the best of terms at the present moment, but if you warn William everything will be ruined."

"What will be ruined?" she asked, wondering whose side she should take. Jack's cause was almost certainly a selfish one, and she had promised to help Will. But she had only said she would help him _find_ Jack, which she had. And if helping Will win over Jack and his compass would put her in danger, then it was better for her to stay on the ship.

"Love-" Jack began, and then he sighed, bringing out his hand. "This is why I'm doing what I'm doing." Slowly, he unbandaged it, and she stared again at the gaping black mark on his hand. It made her heart clench, slowly constricting as she sucked in a breath.

"Please don't ask me to pick between you and sending an innocent man to his death," Violet pleaded, shooting an agonized look at Will.

"You've killed many a man, Charles. And now you suddenly care about one?" Jack asked, and Violet saw the sadness in his eyes. He wanted Violet to choose him. And, deep inside her, she knew that she would. She would always choose him, and she hated that. He was her weakness.

"So you'll sell him to Davy Jones when he shows up, is that it? To settle your debt?" she asked quietly, and Jack groaned, leaning back against the side of the boat.

"I'll try, love, but you and I both know it surely won't be that simple," he said wearily, and she shook her head, staring out at the sea. She knew she could live with Will's death. She'd just have to add it to the ever-growing list of those she'd killed.

"Fine. We'll send him to die. Or, to not die, I guess. I have no qualms about it," she said finally, and Jack gave her a curt nod.

"Fine. Good. Let's do it then," he said, and she followed him to the side of the boat, watching Will be lowered down into the wild ocean in a rowboat.

"If you do get captured, just say Jack Sparrow sent you to settle his debt! Might save your life!" shouted Jack, and Will nodded determinedly. He was too noble. Sooner or later, it was going to get him killed.

They watched Will row off towards the shipwreck, his eyes focused ahead. In front of him, thunder rumbled through the sky, the already pouring rain intensifying.

"Is this where I apologize for our little disagreement, love?" asked Jack after Will was gone from sight, and Violet gave him a look, watching the raindrops slide down the ridges of his face.

"It's not just you, Jack," she said, sighing, not believing that she was really having this discussion with him. "It's both of us. We're just too-"

"I don't really think you want to finish that sentence, lovely," Jack said, turning to her with a pleading look in his eyes. "It's better for both of us."

"Why?" she demanded, throwing her hands in the air. "Should we just keep doing this? Going in this circle? Fighting each other?"

"Yes?" Jack asked hopefully, and she scowled at him. "Look, Violet, I don't want to talk about- whatever _this_ is - right now. Just don't leave me. Savvy?"

She stared at him, stared at his soaked hair and wild eyes and wondered how insane she'd been to go looking for him again. But he was right. There were more important things to worry about then her heart at the present moment.

"Fine," she said, turning back to the ocean. "Hand me that telescope, won't you?" She held out her hand to Jack, who pulled the telescope from his vest. But instead of handing it to her, he slid his fingers through hers delicately, his skin floating against hers. Her breath hitched in her throat as his fingertips met her palm, his rough skin strong against hers.

"What was that you wanted?" he said in a low voice, slowly moving towards her until he was close enough to kiss her. If he wanted to. She no longer felt the pelting rain against her skin, the darkened sky around her. There was only Jack, his eyes boring into hers. Why did he do this to her? Why was she always defenseless when it came to him?

"Your t-telescope," she stuttered, her heart beating a mile a minute.

"Is that it?" he asked softly, and he wrapped his other arm around her waist, drawing her nearer to him. Slowly, he leaned towards her, his face growing closer and closer until-

"Jack Sparrow!"

Immediately, both of them swiveled to face the loud booming voice that echoed through the ship. Standing in front of them was a tall man- if you could call him that. In place of his face was a squid, its tentacles long and curling at the base of his neck, and a wicked look in the two eyes situated in the middle of the creature. All around them, the crew was immediately seized by ungodly creatures, some showing signs of once having been human, some completely overtaken by the ways of the sea. All were grotesque and reeking of dead fish.

"Damn," Violet whispered, staring at his menacing presence. There he was. Davy Jones.

"Oh come on, Jones, can't you see we're a little busy?" Jack said in a weak attempt at bravery, and Violet quickly pushed away from him, realizing his arm was still tucked around her.

"Your- _friend_ -can wait. You have a debt to pay," he demanded, advancing on Jack. "You were captain of the Black Pearlfor thirteen years. That was our agreement."

"Technically, I was only captain for three years. Then I was viciously mutinied upon," Jack replied, raising his hands in surrender, and Violet followed him as they walked back from Davy Jones.

"I hope you know what you're doing," she whispered quietly to Jack, who shook his head slightly.

"Love, do I ever?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"Then you were a poor Captain, but a Captain nonetheless. Have you not introduced yourself all these years as 'Captain Jack Sparrow'?" demanded Davy Jones, and his words were echoed with the laughter of his crew.

"Captain Jones, we've already given you a soul for your crew. The boy, over there," Violet said, pointing to where the shipwreck had been moments before. Only now, though, there was a large ship, bedraggled and worn from the waves of the ocean. The Flying Dutchman. Laughing, Jones turned to her with a leer on his face.

" _We?_ How sweet of you, Miss Charles, but I'm afraid it was not you who made a deal with me," he said mockingly, and Violet fought to keep the red from her cheeks. _Don't be a fool. Davy Jones is dangerous._ "And anyway, I'm afraid one soul is not equal to another."

"So we've established my proposal is sound in principle, now we're just haggling over price," Jack said with a grin, extending his arms.

"Price?" asked Jones, shaking his head.

"Just how many souls, do you think, my soul is worth?" asked Jack, and Violet bit her tongue from making some sarcastic remark. This was not the time nor place.

"One hundred souls. Three days," demanded Jones, and Violet let out a breath. This was a good deal. If it would save Jack, she'd take it in a heartbeat.

"You're a darling, mate. Send me back the boy, I'll get started right off," Jack said, beginning to walk away, but Jones only laughed in his face.

"I keep the boy, a good faith payment. That leaves you only ninety-nine to go. Unless…" Jones' voice trailed off, and Violet's heart beat faster.

"Unless what?" she asked, and Jones gave her a wicked smile.

"If you hand over Violet Charles, _Captain_ Sparrow, I will send you back to boy. And I will take off five souls from your debt," he said with a cruel glint in his eye, and Violet's eyes widened. Five souls? Is that what she was worth? She turned to Jack, who looked extremely pained.

"Five souls? Oh come on, I think I'm worth at least ten," she said haughtily, trying to buy time, but she knew what Jack would do. It was too good to pass up. And she'd be alright. Wouldn't she?

"Six souls. And that's my final _generous_ offer. So what will it be, Captain? Will you be able to let go of your lady?" asked Jones, and Violet turned to Jack.

"Do it," she whispered, and Jack shook his head.

"I can't let you go," he shot back, and she rolled her eyes.

"Six souls, Jack. If it'll help save your life-"

"No!" Jack demanded, turning back to Jones. "No, thank you, you can keep Turner and I'll keep Charles, and we'll be off now to collect our ninety-nine souls, but have a safe voyage."

"Ah, I see," Jones said coldly, the glint gone from his eyes. "Has somebody finally made you noble, Sparrow?"

"Let's settle this," Jack demanded, holding out his hand. Jones gave him a biting smile before snaking a tentacle around Jack's fingers.

"Three days," Jones said, the sound fluttering between his crew members, and suddenly, they disappeared into the night, fading away like ink.

Suddenly, Violet stared at Jack's outstretched hand, taking it in her own and gently pressing his slimy fingers back from his palm.

"It's gone!" she said, staring at the clear skin. There was no sign of the spot that had been there moments before.

"Happy I didn't sell your soul then?" he said with a grin, and she shook her head as he folded her fingers in his own.

"No," she said quietly. "I think you should have taken the offer. I would have been fine, you know. I can take care of myself."

"I know you can," Jack hummed, tracing the back of her hand absentmindedly, and she bit her tongue to keep from smiling.

"Er- Captain?" asked Gibbs suddenly, and Violet quickly snatched her hand away, remembering where she was and who she was with.

"Yes, Mr. Gibbs?" Jack said in an annoyed voice, his hand floating face-up in the air as if still holding the ghost of Violet's own.

"Where to?" Gibbs said, and Jack folded his fingers, lowering his arm slowly.

"I'd say it's time to make a little trip to the perfect place to harvest ninety-nine desperate and battered souls," he said calmly, and Gibbs nodded.

"Tortuga, then," Gibbs agreed, and Jack gave Violet his signature pirate grin.

"Tortuga. Again."


	15. We Have Our Heading

**A/N: I was able to get this chapter out quicker than I thought. Enjoy!**

"Why is it always Tortuga?" demanded Violet, sitting next to Gibbs at a table they'd set up smack in the middle of the tavern. "I've been here twice in the last few days. Twice. To my least favorite island in the Caribbean."

All around her, drunken pirates sang loudly and coarsely, flickering lanterns and tankards of beer everywhere she looked.

"Aye, Violet, but you know the best place to find ninety-nine disorderly souls is here," Gibbs said, flattening the piece of parchment in front of him. "Ah, our first customer! Hello, sir," he said, turning to watch a bedraggled man make his way up to the table.

"'Ello," the man said, and Violet raised an eyebrow at his appearance. He looked far too old to be going anywhere, let alone sailing on the Black Pearl.

"What makes you think you're worthy to crew the Black Pearl?" Gibbs asked, attempting to sound menacing, and the man gave him an imploring look.

"Truth be told, I never sailed a day in me life. I figure I should get out and see the world while I'm still young," said the man, shaking his head sadly, and Violet gave him a winning smile.

"Sounds like a plan. Welcome aboard!" she sang, pointing the ship.

"Next!" Gibbs called out, and another sad-looking pirate made his way to the table. They waited through listening to three more men, encouraging each to join. Groaning, Violet looked down at the list. Four names. Four. There was no way they would get ninety-nine in time.

"How are we going?" asked Jack, and Violet turned to see him lounging on a chair next to the table.

"Terribly. We've got four names, Jack," Violet said sadly, putting her head down on the table. She should have gone. That would have at least gotten them ten. And Jack didn't even seem to be at concerned. You'd think he'd at least care about-

"And what's your story?"

Violet raised her head at Gibbs' voice, face to face with another scruffy pirate. Although this one was different. He looked… somehow familiar, with his ragged gray hair in a frizzy halo around his face, dirt smudged on his nose, and a stormy look in his eyes. She could have sworn she'd seen him before.

"My story?" the man snarled, and suddenly he turned to Violet with a look of such rage that she felt it in her core. "It's exactly the same as your story, just one chapter behind. I chased a pirate through the seven seas. And there was another who disappeared completely."

Suddenly, Violet's heart sank. His voice belonged to no pirate. The clipped vowels and crisp tone told her that much. This was none other than Commodore James Norrington.

"The pursuit cost me my crew, my commission, and my life," he spat, his eyes full of fiery rage now.

"Norrington?" asked Gibbs breathlessly, and Norrington turned on him, his mouth twisted into a wicked smirk.

"Yes, Mr. Gibbs. Remember me? I nearly had you all off Tripoli. I would've, if not for the hurricane," hissed Norrington, before swinging his attention back onto Violet. "And you. You always thought you were so high and mighty, didn't you, what with all your talk of giving up what you love. And yet here you are, back following Sparrow around like a lost little puppy."

Violet stood up, slamming her hands down on the table.

"And I see you've come to tell me you've turned, have you? As I recall, I was to be the first to know," she sneered, and Norrington moved so that his face was inches from hers.

"Maybe I have turned. Would that make you happy? I'd so love to make you happy," he hissed, and she did her best not to recoil from his closeness. "But we shouldn't let our past get in the way, should we _Captain_? Am I worthy to sail on the Black Pearl? To serve under you and your precious Captain Sparrow?"

Violet snatched a pistol she'd found on the table, putting it to Norrington's temple.

"I'd watch what you say, _Commodore._ Oh, wait, you're not a Commodore, anymore. Isn't that right?" Violet smirked, and Norrington snarled, pulling a gun from his own belt and slamming the table over in one quick motion. Violet scrambled out of the way as both the wood and Violet's gun crashed to the ground, and Norrington advanced on her, his pistol trained on her forehead.

"Maybe you should watch what _you_ say, Charles," he said, laughing cruelly, and Violet gave him a wicked grin, spotting a bottle of rum on the table in front of her.

"That's Captain Charles to you," she said, picking up the bottle and slamming it down on Norrington's arm. He cried out as glass shards cascaded from his sleeve, and Violet snatched her gun from the ground, taking off towards the crowd of people in the tavern. Suddenly, hiding behind a potted plant, she spotted Jack, crouched in the middle of the floor.

"Get up, coward," she growled, throwing the plant aside, and Jack stood up reluctantly, holding up his hands.

"In my defense, love, he hadn't spotted me yet, so I wasn't really running away from a fight," he said, and Violet opened her mouth to reply.

"And now I have!"

Norrington burst forth from the ground, his pistol raised at Jack, who quickly turned on his heel and began towards the stairs.

"Time to go!" he chirped, and Gibbs arrived out of nowhere, scurrying up the stairs alongside Jack. Violet followed, looking over her shoulder to see sailors grabbing Norrington's arm. Angered, the Commodore fired, the shot hitting someone's bottle and igniting a brawl through the tavern.

Violet pushed past sailors up the stairway, following behind Jack, who was doing something incredibly stupid with a bunch of hats. She groaned, dodging past Gibbs to push Jack across the floor, causing him to lose his footing and nearly topple to the ground.

"Leave the hats alone, you idiot!" she demanded, and Jack gave her a fake pout, throwing the hat he was holding to the ground.

"Mind if I take yours, then?" Jack yelled above the fray, and Violet glared at him, pushing his hand away as he reached for her hat.

"Over my dead body!" she screamed, pushing him out of the tavern. "Like you said, it's time to go!"

* * *

Finally, they had escaped the tavern and out into the dark Tortuga night, blending in perfectly with the ragged bystanders out in the streets.

"What was he doing there? Or… here. Or anywhere," asked Jack as they stalked down a dock towards the Black Pearl, the rest of the crew waiting for them aboard the ship.

"I don't know, but he hates us with a vengeance," Violet said, shaking her head and remember the rage in Norrington's eyes. "He's gone off the rails, I'd say."

"Captain Sparrow?"

Violet and Jack both turned at the voice to see a skinny boy, a hat low over his eyes and his clothes loose and dirty.

"Come to join me crew, lad? Welcome aboard," said Jack, gesturing to the ship. So that gave them, what, ninety-four more souls to find?

"I'm here to find the man I love," the boy said defiantly, and Violet raised an eyebrow, looking from him to Jack.

"I'm deeply flattered, son, but I'm afraid my heart is already taken," Jack replied flippantly, gesturing for Gibbs to take the boy away. Violet couldn't keep herself from smiling at the comment. It was so out of place for Jack Sparrow, the fabled pirate captain, and it made her want to plant a kiss on his cheek right there and then. _Pull yourself together, Violet. You're Captain Coldblood, not some little schoolgirl in love._

"Meaning William Turner, Captain Sparrow," the boy said, and suddenly the voice clicked in both Violet and Jack's minds. Could it be?

"Elizabeth!" Violet exclaimed, running towards her, taking in the familiar lines of her face. "Skies, I've missed you. But what are you doing here?"

"It's good to see you, Captain Charles," Elizabeth said, stepping forward to embrace Violet, who put her arms around the girl. And she realized that she had, in fact, missed Elizabeth Swann. "And I've come in search of Will."

"Oh, Elizabeth. You've returned. You know, these clothes do not flatter you at all. It should be a dress or nothing. I happen to have no dress in my cabin," Jack said flippantly, turning away, and a stormy look crossed Elizabeth's face.

"Jack. I know Will came to find you. Where is he?" demanded Elizabeth, and Violet shifted uncomfortably, shooting a look at Jack. Elizabeth would be murderous once she found out that Will was- well, sold to the sea, to put it mildly.

"Well, he is- indisposed. At the moment," Violet said, chewing her words slowly, and Elizabeth gave her an uncomfortable stare.

"Darling, I am truly unhappy to have to tell you this, but through an unfortunate and entirely unforeseeable series of circumstances that had nothing whatsoever to do with us, poor Will has been press-ganged into Davy Jones's Crew," Jack said, waving a hand, and Violet stalked over to him, gripping his arm and digging her nails into his skin.

"Jack, what are you doing?" she hissed, but Jack simply put a hand over hers absentmindedly, making her rip it from his grasp.

"Davy Jones?" asked Elizabeth, and a retching noise behind her alerted Violet to another's presence.

"Oh please. The captain of the Flying Dutchman?" said the figure, emerging from the dark, and Violet glared once she recognized the face. It was Norrington, apparently back for more.

"Damn it, Elizabeth, why did you bring _him_ back?" she groaned, and Norrington sneered at her.

"I just couldn't stay away from you, Captain. As I recall, we have unfinished business," he said darkly, and Violet rolled her eyes.

"Well, you look bloody awful," Jack added, pointing at Norrington. "And I'm the only one who's allowed to have business with Charles." Violet coughed loudly, elbowing Jack, who gave her a wicked grin.

"You're not looking so well yourself, Sparrow," Norrington hissed, and Jack put a hand over his heart in mock outrage.

"You wound me," he said, and Norrington stepped forward, ready to fight.

"Please!" Elizabeth said, stepping between the two fools, a pleading expression on her face. "All I want is to find Will."

"Are you certain? Is that what you really want most?" asked Jack, and both Norrington and Violet turned to him curiously.

"Of course," Elizabeth said, somewhat suspiciously, and Jack nodded sagely, putting a hand on her back and leading her forward. Why had Jack changed his mind so quickly? What was his plan this time?

"Because I would think you'd want to find a way to save Will most," declared Jack, and Violet and Norrington followed behind the two of them somewhat awkwardly.

"So you call me a 'lost litte puppy,' but here you are with Miss Swann," Violet said coldly as Jack began to explain something about the chest that Tia Dalma had told them of to Elizabeth.

"I wouldn't push me, Charles. Tempt not a desperate man," he quoted, glaring at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"If I were scared of you, I'd-"

"What is that?" Norrington asked, interrupting her and pointing towards something Jack had pulled out of his vest. His compass. She hadn't seen him use it recently, now that she thought of it.

"Oh, that's just his blasted compass. It doesn't work, really," she said, and Jack turned around with a frown.

"It does work," Jack scowled at her, his tone like that of a child's, and she rolled her eyes, stepping forward with a hand out.

"Then why don't we have a heading?" she asked, and Jack shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, that's right, I have noticed that we haven't really been going anywhere, Sparrow. Now hand it over."

"Fine," Jack said, passing over the compass. "If you're so magnificent, you get it to work."

Violet took the compass, slowly opening the top with a satisfying click. Inside, the needle spun wildly, going around and around in a drunken manner until it stopped, resolutely pointing in front of her. Fixated on the needle, Violet quickly looked up, and stared straight into the face of Jack Sparrow. Quickly, she slammed the lid shut, pushing it back at him.

"See? Broken," she said hurriedly, and Jack gave her a wicked grin.

"It shows you what your heart wants most," Jack said liltingly, taking back the compass with a triumphant air. "And it appears what you want most is-"

"I'll take it!" Elizabeth said quickly, and Violet gave a silent prayer of thanks for her quick interruption. "I know what I want." Elizabeth pried the compass from Jack's hand and slowly lifted the top, staring at the needle as it whizzed around and around. Finally, it came to a stop, pointing off into the distance.

Jack grinned, staring at the coordinates and signaling for Gibbs.

"We have our heading!" he crowed, and Gibbs rushed over, a triumphant grin on his face.

"Finally!" Gibbs shouted, and he stalked away to begin yelling orders to the crew. Jack ushered Elizabeth on board, and she walked ahead as he and Violet followed, the compass still clutched in her hands.

"So I suppose you want to-" Jack began, but Violet quickly silenced him.

"No, I don't want to. I don't even know _what_ you're referring to, but whatever it is, I don't want to," Violet said resolutely, glaring at him. Jack held his hands up in surrender, skipping away across the deck of the ship.

"Alright love! Whatever you say! But I always knew you loved me!" Jack called, turning on his heel and sashaying away. Violet rolled her eyes as the whole crew turned to stare at her, smiles on their faces. Quickly, she turned to the sailors, wiping the smile from her face.

"What are you looking at?" she demanded, shooting them all dark stares. "Back to work with the lot of you!" One thing was for certain: she needed to stop herself from falling for Jack Sparrow.


	16. Betrayal

**A/N: Wow, it's been a while! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get another chapter out, I've been pretty busy with another fanfiction competition. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, I've loved being able to get back to this story. Pirates of the Caribbean is my first love. :)**

"Cutler Beckett."

Jack spat the name into the air, letting the words hang above their heads. A chill slipped down Violet's spine at the name. She hated Cutler Beckett more than anything else in the seven seas.

"Yes, he signed them," Elizabeth said, holding out the letters of marque with a matter-of-fact expression, and Jack suddenly turned to Violet, raising an eyebrow.

"It would seem that Will was working for Beckett this whole time, and never said a thing. As I recall, you were with him when we met you on that island, weren't you?" he asked, and Violet raised her hands.

"I swear to you I was not working for Cutler Beckett," she said, but Jack and Gibbs, who had joined them, looking unconvinced. "William told me that Beckett had warrants for our arrest, and he needed to find you in order to save Elizabeth. The poor boy was completely lost, there's no way he would have survived without me."

"So you accompanied the boy to steal my compass?" Jack asked, and Violet sighed heavily.

"Of course not. I only wanted to help Elizabeth-"

"By stealing my compass."

"Well- perhaps. But I wouldn't have gone back to Beckett. I'd rather die," Violet said defiantly, and Jack gave her a look.

"Well, it matters not. Evidently, Beckett wants the chest." Jack sauntered across the boat, and Elizabeth folded her arms behind him.

"Yes, he did say something about a chest."

"I'm sure he did." Violet stared out at the sea. If Cutler Beckett had gotten a hold of that chest, God help them all. "We're all damned if he gets it, too."

"Jack. I want the letters back," Elizabeth said decidedly, and Jack frowned.

"No. Persuade me." Grinning, he began to walk up to Elizabeth, who rolled her eyes.

"You do know Will taught me how to handle a sword." A sly smile crossed both of their faces, and suddenly Violet was filled with a sick, burning feeling that made her insides tighten. Why were they looking at each other like that? Better yet, why was _Jack_ looking at her like that?

"As I said. Persuade me." Jack raised an eyebrow, and Elizabeth gave him a quick smile before turning away and walking across the deck. Violet gave the captain a sour look, who only widened his grin.

"Oh, don't be jealous, darling, it's not becoming on you." He stepped closer to her, and she quickly wiped the expression off her face, forcing a nonchalant smile.

"Jealous? Me? Never." She flashed her teeth at him, and Jack slowly shook his head.

"Still in denial?"

"About what?" Her voice was casual, but her heart did a little flip.

"About how much you adore me." His voice was low now, and it sent a shiver down Violet's spine. Quickly, though, she straightened up and turned away.

"I have a general appreciation for you, Jack Sparrow, and that is all." She walked to the railing, her eyes on the choppy waves.

"How long must we keep doing this?" Violet nearly jumped at the sound of Jack's voice, low and next to her ear, standing directly behind her.

"Doing what?"

"Pretending that you're not desperately in love with me."

So this was it. They were finally going to talk about it. About whatever the hell was going on between the two of them. And to be honest, Violet wasn't ready. At all.

"What were you going to say that day? The day we were at the gallows?" She turned to face him, and Jack's tanned face passed through several indistinguishable emotions.

"I don't think it's too complicated to figure out, love." His eyes flashed, and Violet shook her head, refusing to let herself break her stare.

"I want to hear you say it," she said softly, and Jack laughed, giving her a look.

"Why don't you say it first?"

"I can't, Jack." Her voice broke, and she pressed a hand to the railing to steady herself. "Do you remember what happened three years ago?"

"Love, I've told you, I'm sorry-"

"You sold me out to Beckett. For some _money_ , Jack, for a few coins! One minute I was asleep on the ship and the next I was in jail, arms tied behind me. I got out of there at the last second before I was _executed_. You sold me to my death. And when I finally found you again, on my ship, I didn't come alone, if you'll recall. That's the only way I was able to get rid of you for good." Jack didn't speak, only turned his piercing eyes on Violet as she spat her words out into the air.

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, but don't think Beckett let me go without a parting gift." Gingerly, Violet lifted up the hem of her shirt to reveal a red 'P' branded on the side of her torso. Jack sucked in a breath, and Violet let her shirt drop. She'd never shown that mark to anyone.

"That bastard is dead," Jack snarled, his eyes angry as she'd never seen them before. But she didn't care. His words were no good now.

"And then I saw you again on Tortuga and it's like all my sense just- left me. And here I am, following you around like a child. Norrington was right. I am just a lost puppy." She blinked furiously, trying to send the tears from her eyes. She hated this. Hated it with all her heart.

"I know I'll never be able to win you back from that, and it kills me." Jack's gaze burned into Violet's eyes, and she looked away. "But I-"

"Don't. Don't do that. You'll destroy everything." She suddenly grabbed Jack's arm, and he froze.

"I thought you wanted-"

"I don't. I can't. Because if you do, then nothing will ever be the same. Pirates can't have ties like this, Jack. You know that. It compromises everything." Tears pricked Violet's eyes, but she forced them back.

"Love, you know I only meant to-"

" _Please_ , Jack, just go. I can't- I can't do this anymore." She didn't look at Jack, didn't want to see the hurt in his eyes. Something was severed, now, between them. One way or another, she was going to have to choose whether or not she wanted Jack Sparrow in her life.

"Land ho!" It was at that moment that Gibbs shouted across the ship, startling them both. Sure enough, there it was- a long stretch of sandy beach that no doubt held the chest they sought. Without looking at each other, Jack and Violet walked across the deck towards the longboats. Now was not the time for petty drama. Not when they had a pirate captain's heart to find.

Norrington, Jack, and Violet all stood behind Elizabeth on the beach, following her as she followed the compass' direction. Slowly, she came to a stop in front of a flat patch of sand and began to walk in circles.

"This doesn't work." Elizabeth fell to sit in the sand, glaring furiously at the compass. Suddenly, Violet held out a hand.

"I'll take it." Elizabeth looked up at her inquisitively, but handed the instrument to Violet. Slowly, the captain opened the lid and let the needle spin around. _The chest,_ she willed herself to think. _That's what I want most. The chest._ She bit her lip until the needle passed Jack, and she let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Finally, it settled to a stop underneath Elizabeth.

"It's buried!" Violet said triumphantly, pointing to the sand. "We need to start digging."

"Take a shovel, then." Violet looked up just in time to catch the shovel Norrington threw at her. "I can't be expected to dig all on my own, now can I?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Commodore. Let me help you," she crooned before firmly planting the tip of her shovel into the sand. This was going to take awhile.

It was a full twenty minutes before Norrington finally hit something solid, the _thwack_ of the shovel probably the most satisfying sound Violet had ever heard. From the side of the growing hole they were submerged in, Jack sat on the sand, being a lazy git as usual.

"Finally! I was about to throw this damned shovel at your head, Charles," Norrington said as the two of them crouched down to brush the rest of the sand off of the object. It was a chest, all right, wooden and locked tightly, but bigger than Violet had imagined.

"This is a bit big for a heart, wouldn't you say?" Violet grunted as she heaved the chest from the sand with the help of Norrington, placing it on the lip of the sandpit.

"Oh, don't be stupid, Charles. There's not an _actual_ heart in this. It's obviously metaphorical." Norrington stuck his nose up haughtily as Jack cruised over to the pair, armed with a shovel of his own. Swiftly, the captain snapped the lock on the larger box and Norrington flipped the lid off eagerly, revealing another chest underneath. Delicately, Jack removed the smaller chest and put it up to his ear.

 _Thump-thump. Thump-thump._

"It's real," Elizabeth breathed, and Violet stared at the chest with wide eyes.

"Of course it's real," Jack said bitterly. "I don't always lie, you know."

"Are you certain?"

The four had barely turned around at the familiar voice when Elizabeth took off running towards the approaching figure.

"Will! You're alright, thank God!" Elizabeth ran into his arms, kissing him deeply, and Violet felt any hint of a smile slip from her face, replaced by a crashing wave of guilt. William Turner was going to murder them.

"How did you get here?" Jack asked immediately, and Will pulled away from Elizabeth in time to give him a half-smirk.

"Sea turtles, mate. A pair of 'em, strapped to my feet."

"Not so easy, is it?"

"But I do owe you thanks, Jack." Will stepped closer to Jack, his eyes dark and brooding.

"You do?" Jack raised an eyebrow, and Will nodded.

"After you tricked me onto that ship, to square your debt with Jones-"

"What?" Elizabeth shrieked. There it was, out in the open. Violet had forgotten about Elizabeth, who would probably also kill her. It would be a double murder.

"What?" Jack said innocently, and Will shook his head, flashing his teeth in a wicked grin that looked suspiciously pirate-like.

"I was reunited with my father."

"Bootstrap?" Violet asked incredulously. "I thought he was dead."

"Oh, there you are, Violet. I was beginning to worry that you'd finally lost your voice after so many days of going along with whatever Jack decides." Will spat the words at her, accompanying them with a sly smile, and Violet bit her tongue to keep the guilt away.

"Everything you've said to me, every word was a lie!" Elizabeth screamed at Jack, anger on her face, before turning to Violet. "And you. I'd expect this from Jack, but never from you. How could you?"

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth. Really, I am. But it's the pirate life. Betrayal is just another tool of the trade, and I'm sure you'll experience it again before your time on the sea is done." Violet narrowed her eyes at the woman, who'd she'd once ventured to call a friend, hating herself with every minute. But this is how it would have to be. Friends and lovers aren't allowed on the open ocean. She knew about betrayal better than anyone else, didn't she?


	17. Good People

**A/N: I'm so sorry, but here I am again with a late update :( Real life has been kind of wild but I promise to do better with updates. Enjoy this chapter, it's a bit action-packed but I promise the next one will be a good one - and will mark the end of the second film! As always, your kind reviews are simply the best and I love each and every one of them - so thank you! 3**

The next thing Violet knew, Will Turner was kneeling next to the chest and trying to break it open with a knife.

"I'm going to kill Jones," the man said defiantly, and it was then that Violet glimpsed the flash of a sword out of the corner of her eye, and suddenly Jack was pointing his sword straight at Will.

"Can't let you do that, William. 'Cause if Jones is dead, who's to call his terrible beastie off the hunt, eh?" Jack held out a hand to Will, reaching for the key that was clutched in the boy's hand. "The key, if you please." Smirking, Will snatched Elizabeth's sword away from her and leveled it towards Jack.

"I keep the promises I make, Jack. I intend to free my father. And I hope you're here to see it." Will sneered, and it only took a few seconds before Norrington's sword was in hand, pointed at Will.

"I can't let you do that either. So sorry."

"I knew you'd warm up to me eventually," Jack crooned, and Norrington glared at him.

"Lord Beckett desires the contents of that chest. I deliver it, I get my life back." Norrington swiveled his sword to point it at Jack, and Violet didn't wait before drawing her own blade and pointing it at Norrington.

Jack wanted the chest for his own gain, to save his own skin. Will wanted to save his father, a man he barely even knew, and a quest that would surely end with the heart ending up back to Jones. Norrington wanted his post back. And Violet. She would do anything to keep that heart from falling into Beckett's hands, even if it killed her. That man deserved nothing.

"I'm ever so sorry, my darling Commodore, but that chest can't find it's way into the grasp of Cutler Beckett. It just can't." Violet gave him a sweet smile, and he rolled his eyes.

"Oh, and I'm sure a lady like you will be able to stop me." He turned his sword on her and she narrowed her eyes, the words make red flood her vision. She was _not_ a lady.

"That was a bad move, I'm afraid," Jack said quietly, and Violet lunged. Her sword clashed with Norrington's, and they were off in the deathly dance of swordplay. He was a dead man walking.

"Stop!" Violet could hear Elizabeth's voice faintly through her tunnel vision, but she ignored the girl's outraged cries, focusing on the bastard in front of her. Beside her, she was vaguely aware of Jack and Will fighting their own battle.

"Still think I'm a lady?" Violet hissed through gritted teeth, flipping her sword sideways in order to block Norrington's incoming stab.

"You certainly fight like one." Norrington drove her backward with his calculated slashes, and Violet had to dig her heels into the sand to stop the tirade. She was going to win this fight.

"I appreciate the compliment, darling," she said with a smile, abandoning any sense of technique she ever had and beginning to stab wildly in his direction. It was about time someone taught this fool some manners.

Suddenly, she heard a commotion and noticed Jack, key in hand, running in the opposite direction.

"Damn it," she muttered, and the two took off after Will, following the mad pirate captain with the key.

Running through a jungle-like grove of trees, the pursuit led her up the stairs of an old mill, the wood nearly crumbling beneath her. Suddenly, a blade whizzed past her ear, and all of a sudden she was locked in combat with Will, Norrington and Jack fighting above them.

"Nice to see you, Violet. It's been a while, hasn't it?" The two made their way up the rest of the stairway, swords clashing with every step.

"I've missed you, William. Truly I have." Violet drove her sword forward, and Will's dodge sent him accidentally pulling a rope for balance, setting off a loud bell from above.

"I hope you enjoyed selling me to Jones," Will said as they suddenly careened upwards. "Because it worked out well for me in the end, didn't it?"

"If it's any consolation, it wasn't my idea. But we all get in the way of Jack Sparrow saving his own skin, don't we?"

They found their way in the roof in a moment, taking off across the rickety tiles, blades flashing, and suddenly Jack and Norrington were engulfed in their fight. It was a flurry of swords and shouts before finally, Jack lay on the ground, three swords pointed at his throat.

"Do excuse me while I kill the man that ruined my life," Norrington growled, and Will stepped back with his hands in the air.

"Be my guest."

"Let us examine that claim for a moment, former Commodore, shall we? Who was it that at the very moment you had a notorious pirate safely behind bars saw fit to free said pirate and take your dearly beloved all to himself, aye? So whose fault is it really that you've ended up a rum-pot deckhand what takes orders from pirates?" Jack raised an eyebrow, and Norrington growled angrily.

"You bring up a good point, Mr. Sparrow, but if I recall, it was a different pirate who made a complete mockery of my career." Slowly, Norrington's eyes clouded over with rage, and Violet knew which pirate he was talking about. "'You can't even catch a woman, Norrington.' 'What kind of soldier can't even track down a female pirate?'"

"Apparently you," Violet sneered, regretting the words the moment she said them.

"You know nothing, Charles. How could you, when you can prance around and do whatever you want on the open ocean? Not all of us are so lucky." A strange sadness took over Norrington's face, and Violet found herself feeling sorry for the man. "I did what you asked once long ago, and how did you repay me? By making me into a fool."

"I think you did a fine enough job of that on your own," Jack piped up from his position of the room, and Norrington's face contorted into a mask of rage.

"Enough!" he called, and he quickly took a swipe at Jack with his blade. Suddenly, Violet felt a hand latch around her ankle, and before she knew it, both her and Jack her falling off the side of the roof.

Shouting, she landed with a _thump_ on the soft, sandy ground, her sword clattering to a halt beside her.

"What in the seven seas possessed you to-"

"Let's go, love, before those two imbeciles catch on." Jack, key around his neck, beckoned her forward, and reluctantly, she followed, sheathing her sword.

Before the two of them could get very far, a loud crash drew their attention to a giant millwheel, which was now rolling across the forest, holding both Will and Norrington, who were locked in combat.

"Why is everything always impossibly strange when it comes to the three of you?" Violet yelled, exasperated, and Jack shrugged.

"Oh, come on, love, don't pretend you're not just as strange as the rest of us. Now, allons-y!" The two of them charged through the forest, in pursuit of a pirate - well, if you could it one - with a conch shell for a head who had the chest clasped firmly in its arms.

"Perhaps I should distract him while you come round the back and try to-" Jack's words were silenced when Violet pulled out her sword and sprinted ahead like a madwoman.

"Or I could just do _this-"_ With all her might, Violet swung her sword around and took off the pirate's head like she was wielding a machete. The now-headless pirate dropped the chest, and Jack and Violet kneeled next to it.

"I suppose that was the easier option," Jack muttered as he unlocked the chest, fumbling with the key. Under the lid lay a pulsing, beating heart, and Violet wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"His literal heart? Really? And all this time I thought it would be some clever representation. Or treasure, at the least-"

"Well, no time to mourn, love, it looks like we've got company." Violet looked up to see Elizabeth and those two imbeciles from Barbossa's crew running towards them, trailed by half a dozen mad pirates.

Immediately, Jack shoved the heart down his shirt and took off running, Violet close behind.

"You couldn't just carry it?" Violet asked, disgusted, and Jack grinned.

"Perhaps you'd like to?"

"I'll pass," she said, not really interested in touching the heart of Davy Jones. Suddenly, they were nearing the boat, and Jack practically threw himself into the vessel, seizing his jar of dirt. Quickly, he shoved the organ inside just as the tide of Jones' crew came upon them, and soon it was another flurry of swords and blood.

Violet took on two pirates of her own, slashing at their seaweed like skin with renewed vigor. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Norrginton fumbling around in the boat with Jack's coat. _The letters._

If Norrington wanted the letters, there could only be one place he intended to go, and that was straight to Beckett. Shedding her assailants, Violet ran to the boat, sword in hand. This idiot was going nowhere with-

"Trying to stop me, are we, Charles? I'm afraid you were never quite good enough for that." Suddenly, Norrington had spun around and she felt a searing pain in her temple as the oar he was holding made contact with her head, and she was falling, falling, falling, and all she could think about was how, here she was, being knocked by an oar for the second time.

* * *

Violet opened her eyes to the sound of Jack Sparrow ordering his crew around like he was a bloody dictator, which, in part, he was.

"Hard to starboard! Hard to starboard, and- Oh, excellent, Violet, you're awake. Just in time, too." He extended a hand and she took it, hoisting herself to her feet.

"What is going-" Her question was answered for her when she came face to face with a massive, hulking ship in the middle of the ocean, covered in barnacles. The Flying Dutchman, cannons slid out and aimed straight to the Pearl. They must have carried her back to the ship. She only hoped it wasn't Jack who had done the carrying. "Oh. Wonderful."

"Raise up the foreyard!" Will's shouts rose above the commotion on board just as the first round of cannonballs shook the ship, nearly causing Violet to fall.

"We've got to _move_ , Jack!" Violet scrambled across the deck, ignoring the throbbing in her head as she did so. "Gibbs!"

"She's all yours, Miss." Gibbs, who was manning the steering wheel, quickly passed it up to Violet, who used all that she had to drag it firmly to the right.

"Make fast!" Will called from where he was struggling with the sails, and Violet gave the wheel everything she had.

"She's falling behind!" Elizabeth called from the deck, and Violet grinned as the ship caught the wind and sped through the sea, leaving the Dutchman in the dust.

"We've got her!" Gibbs called, and Violet gave the wheel one last pull before stepping back, relieved as she'd never been before.

The crew erupted in cheers as the Dutchman broke off pursuit. Jack, prancing through the ship with his stupid jar of dirt, sauntered up to her with a smile.

"Nicely done, love."

"Thank you, Captain," Violet said quietly, and Jack gave her a tight smile.

"I have something that perhaps you might want to hear," Jack said, looking her straight in the eye. "Or perhaps you might not."

"What is it?" Violet asked warily.

"I didn't sell you out. Or, at least, that wasn't my intention." Jack stared at her, a blank expression on his face, as if this was all perfectly normal.

"Don't be ridiculous, Jack. This lie, or whatever you're trying to say, is not going to make me-"

"Beckett found me on the shore that night and told me I could tell him where you were and be generously compensated or I could turn in meself. I- you have to understand, love, it wasn't just about the money. It was-"

"You think that this is an excuse, Jack? That you were saving your own skin, just like you always do, so I should forgive you right here and now?" Violet shook her head, incredulous to his stupidity.

"I don't want your forgiveness, love, but I know you, Coldblood, and you can't look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing." Jack's gaze echoed the intensity in her own, and she felt her heart fold inwards.

Would she have done the same thing? Back then, Jack was her everything, her north star, her horizon of what was possible. But would she have let Beckett take her for a second time? Or would she have taken the money and ran?

"You're right," Violet said finally, shaking her head. "I can't."

Jack didn't smile, didn't gloat, merely nodded and turned away, stumbling off in that same drunken manner he always seemed to have.

Because they weren't good people, her and Jack. And maybe that's why the two of them always seemed to end up in the same place.


	18. Bound to Each Other

_Bump._

Suddenly, the whole crew was jolted to the side, and Violet rushed to the edge of the ship. Below her, the ocean was bubbling, hugging the sides of the _Pearl_ , and Violet sucked in a breath.

 _What was down there?_

"We must have hit a reef," a sailor said absent-mindedly, drawing the rest of the crew to the side of the boat.

"That's no reef." Violet heard a low voice say behind her, and suddenly Gibbs had grabbed her arm, pulling her backwards. "Get back, Miss Charles!"

"What is it?" Violet asked, scrabbling backwards as Will began shouting about cannons and guns. "What is it, Gibbs?"

"The Kraken." Gibbs' face was grimmer than Violet had ever seen him. "And it's here for the Captain."

So this was it. The final showdown. Death had finally caught up with Jack Sparrow, and they were going to have to see if he could outrun it a final time.

"Why aren't we firing?" Violet screamed, running over to Will, who had seemed to momentarily forget about their current disagreement.

"Because since the dear captain is nowhere to be found, we are waiting for _my_ signal, Violet, not yours." Will's face was stone, unreadable, and Violet decided to let his words go. This was no place for an argument, not when she knew she was the one at fault for his anger. The boy had just found his father, after all, a luxury that most pirates weren't granted.

"Well, I'd say you'd better make your signal, Will, or soon you might have no hands left to signal _with_ ," Violet hissed, and Will shook his head.

"Almost…" he muttered, brow furrowed. Suddenly, he turned to the crew. "Fire!"

The cannons went off with a bang, and Violet could see the Kraken's tentacles retract, cannonball holes left in its suction-cupped skin.

"It'll be back," Will said solemnly, eyes on the bubbling water beneath them. "We have to get off the ship."

"There's no boats!" Elizabeth exclaimed, gesturing to the pile of splintered wood that was all that remained of the longboats.

"Where's Jack?" Violet demanded, looking around the ship. "If it's him the Kraken's after, then it's him who needs to get us out of this." She ran to the bow, surveying the deck of the ship. And that's when she spotted him. Sitting in a rowboat, halfway out to sea.

"No," she said quietly, shaking her head. Her body turned to ice and her vision flooded with red. "How could you?"

"Violet!" Elizabeth was at her side now, shaking her shoulders. "We have to fight, Violet, you have to help us!"

"But Jack-" Violet began, but Elizabeth shook her head, gesturing back at the battle on the deck beneath them.

"Is gone. And won't be coming back. And I know we've had our differences lately, but I think we can all overlook those for the good of the ship, can't we?" Elizabeth gave her an imploring gaze, and Violet tore her eyes away from Jack, pushing him from her mind.

"Alright," Violet said, returning to the fight. "But if we make it out of this alive, Jack Sparrow is as good as dead."

"We've loaded the rum," Will shouts as she joined him from where they were heaving up a huge net filled with barrels. "I hope you won't mind."

"It's a devastating loss, to be sure, but I prefer it over my own life," Violet said through gritted teeth, pulling on the rope with all her might.

"Heave!" Gibbs shouted, and suddenly, the ship shuddered, tentacles rising on all sides and beginning to smash across the deck of the ship.

All of a sudden, everything was suction cups and tentacles and cracking bones, and men were being dragged into the ocean in all directions. Violet could barely register the one coming at her before it was locked around her waist, pulling her to the other side of the ship.

"Violet!" Gibbs called, and she began to twist in its grasp, slowly shimmying her cutlass out of its sheath. She felt her feet leave the ground as she was hoisted into the air, dangling above the deck of the ship, and suddenly her cutlass slid free and she was stabbing at the tentacle with all her might, ignoring the blood and slime that flew at her face. She kept thwacking as her cheek brushed the sail of the ship, her body above the ocean now, and she tasted the foreign blood on her tongue.

"I'll be damned if I die at the hands of Davy-" _thwack._ "Jones's." _thwack._ "Little." _thwack._ "Pet!" With one last blow she dug her blade deep into the flesh of the Kraken and heard it give out an unholy screech, and all of a sudden it let her go and she was falling, plummeting through the air with nothing to break her fall but the unforgiving waves of the sea.

She hit the water just as she expected, the icy waves stabbing her skin as she flailed for the surface. Suddenly, a tentacle wrapped itself around her ankle, and she paddled desperately to reach the air. The sea seemed endless, and she continued to paddle, the sea a blur of bubbles and splintered wood, her muscles dead weight as she tried to free herself from the Kraken's grasp.

Black pricked the edges of her vision, and Violet nearly laughed as she gave one more stroke before letting the tentacle pull her down, down, into the depths of the sea. That this was where she, a pirate, would meet her end. By paying a visit to the famed Davy Jones' Locker.

And even though she willed him not to, it was Jack who entered her mind as she began to lose consciousness, Jack who sauntered into her thoughts and stared at her mockingly.

" _Going down without a fight, Charles? I'd have expected far better than that."_

His voice rang clear in her head and she shook her head, her eyes swimming and her head plugged with pressure.

 _I tried, Jack. I tried._

But he was right. And so Violet used her last shred of energy to swim, stroking as far as her muscles would let her.

And it was enough.

* * *

Jack Sparrow had always considered himself clever.

He had always known what he wanted throughout his whole career, and that was what was best for him. After all, was that every pirate's goal? To fight for themselves, no matter the cost?

And yet, here he was, running away from his beloved ship in a dingy little rowboat. And for what? He knew Davy Jones' beast would find him eventually.

And Violet. What of her? She would never forgive him, not for what he'd done to her. He wasn't even sure he wanted her to, not when he could barely forgive himself. He had never tried so hard to get a woman before, and it was exhausting.

Slowly, he drew out his compass, and for the first time, he was absolutely certain of where it would point. The needle didn't even need to spin before pointing resolutely in the direction of the ship. Groaning, Jack shook his head.

"Bugger," he muttered, picking up his oars. It was the result he expected, no less, which made it all the more infuriating. And now to decide. Onward to dry land where he might live a little, maybe get drunk as he anticipated his impending death? Or forward to where his crew and his ship, his pride and joy, were being beaten to a pulp by a giant octopus?

Groaning, he dipped the oars into the sea and began to row.

 _"Makes sense you'd come running back to me, Sparrow. That's all you ever seem to do."_

Her voice echoed in his ears, and he rolled his eyes, concentrating on his rowing.

"It's for the ship, Charles. Don't get all self-righteous on me," he muttered, rowing with a ferocity that sent water splashing up in all directions.

And that was when he saw her, clutched in a tentacle and being dangled above the sea.

"Son of a-" Jack began to row faster than he ever had before, pumping his arms like a madman. "Of course when I leave, she ends up becoming Kraken-food."

He watched, helplessly, as she managed to cut the tentacle off of herself, which he had to give her credit for, and was thrown lifelessly into the unforgiving sea. And that was when Jack's heart stopped beating.

"Come up, Charles." His voice was low, and he watched the surface where she had fallen become deathly still. "Come on, come on, come up, Charles, you can do this."

Jack stood up in his rowboat, nearing the spot where she had fallen now, and suddenly, everything became focused on the one spot, the tentacles and the screaming sailors and the groaning ship silenced from his mind.

"Violet!" he screamed, his voice raw and his throat burning. His heart was ripping itself into pieces with dread, his mind a crumpled mess. He'd never felt like this before, so- so hopeless. Because that's what he was without her. Hopeless. "Violet!"

Suddenly, there was a splash, a few bubbles near the top of the surface, and Jack didn't wait any longer. Throwing off his coat, he dove into the water, paddling as fast as his arms would take him.

And there she was, a tentacle clasped around her leg, eyes shut and falling deeper into the dark abyss of Davy Jones' locker.

He swam for her, seizing her waist and pulling as hard as he could against the unforgiving tentacle. Refusing to give up, he wrenched the cutlass from Violet's hand and began to saw at the creature as best as the underwater conditions would let him. Finally, the arm retracted, and Jack grabbed his Captain and swam as hard as he could to the surface.

* * *

Violet awoke on the deck of the _Black Pearl_ , coughing up water and feeling like her insides had been soaked in salt.

"We have to abandon ship!" Will called, staring down at Violet. "Someone get her into the rowboat!"

"I think I can handle it," Violet said, pushing herself up onto her forearms. "But how-" Her gaze landed on Jack, who was sitting on the broken stairwell of the _Pearl_.

"I owed you," Jack said simply, not meeting her gaze. "And let it be known that Captain Jack Sparrow always repays his debts."

"That is the biggest lie I've ever heard," Violet said, but she couldn't help herself from smiling. "And what of the Kraken?"

"We've scared him off, but he'll be back," Gibbs said, helping her to her feet. "So we've got to move."

"Into the boat, then!" Jack said, standing up. "Let's go, everyone, no time to dally, not when there's a terrible beastie on the loose."

Gibbs, Will, and the remaining crew members began to file into the boat, taking last forlorn looks at the _Pearl_ as they did so. Soon, Elizabeth, Jack, and Violet remained the only souls on board.

"Violet, I have to tell you something," Elizabeth said quietly, shooting a cautious glance at Jack, who was lingering on the other side of the ship, his hand on the railing.

"What is it?" Violet stared at Elizabeth, alarmed by the seriousness in her eyes.

"The beast- It's not here for us, Violet. It's here for Jack, and Jack alone. And I'm merely telling you this because- well, either option is not ideal. It's either Jack dies, or well, we all die." Elizabeth refused to meet Violet's gaze, and in the eerie calm of the ship, Violet could understand why.

"You're right." Violet put a hand on the _Pearl_ 's railing, her eyes stormy. "And I assume you're here to trick Jack into staying?" Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably, but Violet felt no anger. Elizabeth was clever, and she'd do anything to protect the man she loved. Hadn't Violet felt that same way once? "Oh, come on, Elizabeth, I know how clever you are."

"But I've decided against it," Elizabeth said, her gaze imploring. "Because it's not my battle to fight."

"And it's mine?" Violet asked indignantly, shaking her head. "I'm not Jack's keeper."

"But you are the woman he loves," Elizabeth said. "And he will listen to you. And he might even die for you."

Violet didn't respond, looking out at the ocean. Elizabeth's question was reasonable, and that's what made it all the more frustrating.

"I won't be angry," Elizabeth said quietly, placing her hand over Violet's, "either way you choose."

"I understand," Violet said. And she did. Staring out at that open ocean, whose clutches Jack Sparrow had just saved her from, she felt her heart clench.

The two of them shared a glance, unspoken words passing between them.

"I'll meet you in the boat, then," Elizabeth said quietly, putting a hand over Violet's. "We'll get out of this, won't we?"

Violet turned to Elizabeth, contemplating her words. Wouldn't they? They had to. They always did.

"Of course we will," Violet said with a forced grin. "It would take a lot more than a lousy octopus to do us in."

Cautiously, Elizabeth reached for Violet's hand and pressed something cold and metal into the pirate's hand. Glancing down, Violet stared at the glinting handcuffs, and a wave of sudden revolt crashed down on her as the harsh reality of what Elizabeth expected her to do hit her.

She was going to kill Jack Sparrow. Maybe not directly, but his death would be on her hands. And she wasn't sure if she was ready for that.

With a last lingering look, Elizabeth turned to climb into the boat, and Violet watched as she disappeared from sight.

"Violet."

Slowly, she turned and walked towards the mast, where Jack stood, his eyes burning into her own. She dragged out every step, prolonging the decision she knew she had to make.

Could she do this? Should she do this? Betray the man who meant everything to her, just like he had done so many years before? She knew what it felt like to be sold to your death. Could she subject someone else to that? Quickly, she began to talk, barely even knowing what she was saying as her mind raced.

"We have to go, Jack. I know what this ship means to you, but-"

"Did you ever think of me, love? When you were in that cell?" Jack's gaze was unrelenting, and Violet nearly stepped back at the shock of his words.

"Only of putting a knife in your back," Violet said without malice, her expression unreadable. He wanted the truth, didn't he?

"I thought of you," Jack said, as if he hadn't really listened to her words at all. "Every day, I did. I agonized over you, and every minute of my damned life I wondered what had happened to you."

"I know," Violet said. And she did. She knew that he regretted it, that much was clear. And in that moment, Violet knew what she had to do. The regret would eat her alive, would nearly kill her, but she'd come out alright in the end. Wouldn't she?

"Do you know why I jumped in that water after you?" His expression was the same, blank stare it had been. He was completely emotionless.

"It doesn't matter, Jack. Not now." She stared at him, drinking in his face. This would be the last time she'd ever see him, ever hear his voice.

"Because the second I saw you under that water, it was like my heart was ripped out of my chest and locked in a box of its own. I was as good for nothing as Davy Jones." Jack walked forward until he was a foot away from her, and in his eyes, Violet saw herself reflected back at her. She had to do it now. She couldn't wait any longer, because if she did, she might never do it.

"You know who the Kraken's here for, don't you, Jack?" Violet's voice was quiet, and she grabbed his wrist, tears pricking the backs of her eyes. "It's not here for me."

They stared at each other silently for a minute, unmoving.

"That's right, love," Jack said, sliding his arm up in her grasp to entwine his fingers with hers. "It's here for me."

"Yes." Her voice was shaking, a thin, frail thing on the verge of snapping in two. "And I think that you know what will happen if you get in that boat."

"I do," Jack said, his fingers still clasped in hers. "And I think you know that I'm going to get in it anyway, love."

"I do," Violet said, repeating his words. Slowly, she began to walk forward, and Jack backed up as she did so until his back was pressed up against the ship's railing. "And that's why when I do this, I can only hope that you understand why."

Her heart was beating impossibly loudly, and Violet knew Jack could hear it. She had to do this. For all of them.

Jack turned his gaze straight up to hers, and in that minute, she realized exactly what this would take of her, and suddenly the storm inside of her calmed, and she looked at the pirate in relief. She couldn't leave him. She'd done it once and it had nearly killed her, to do it again would be impossible.

 _Wherever we'll go, we'll go._

With a sharp breath, she slammed their entwined hands against the railing and hooked Elizabeth's handcuffs around his wrist and the wood of the ship. At the last second, Violet twisted her palm around and, still clutching his fingers, slammed the cuff shut around both of their wrists.

"What the hell are you-" Jack began, tugging frantically against the metal, but Violet just gave him a sad smile.

"I forgive you, Jack." The words were so quiet they were barely a whisper, but Jack stopped cold at the sound of them. She watched, mesmerized, as his brown eyes slowly filled with tears, and he slid his free hand through her hair.

Slowly, Jack pressed his forehead to hers, and Violet let her eyelids flutter shut.

"You don't know how long I've waited to hear that, love," he said quietly, and Violet choked out a laugh, feeling tears prick the corners of her own eyes.

"So this is it, then? This is how we go?" She tucked an arm behind his neck, pulling him closer to her. He could never be close enough. Never.

"Why are you doing this?" Jack said, his eyelashes kissing her cheek. "You could go now and leave me and be free of this beastie and your torturous captain all in one."

"No," Violet said, saying the words to herself as much as to Jack. "I could never be free of you, Jack. Not when-"

Suddenly the ship shook beneath them, and Violet gripped Jack tightly as they nearly toppled over. For once in her life, Violet felt a sharp burst of cold fear flow through her. This was it, then. This was where death caught up to Captain Jack Sparrow. And she had placed herself right in the middle of its path.

Slowly, as silently as if it were already dead, the Kraken began to extend its tentacles out of the water, and the two pirates watched as they crept over the railing of the ship.

This was it. This was the end.

"I love you, Violet Charles." The words sounded just as pretty as they had the first two times Jack had said them, but this time, chills fluttered down her spine. _He_ made her feel that way. _He_ always brought her adventure. And _he_ was hers. And in that moment Violet knew how she felt, for the first time in two years, and she couldn't keep the smile off of her face, even as the Kraken drew closer and closer.

"And I-" she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, listening to the too-quiet sound of the sea. This was it. "I love you, Jack Sparrow."

Jack didn't even wait for another word before he pressed his lips to hers, pulling her closer to him. He wrapped his arm around Violet's waist and deepened the kiss, tasting the smile on her lips. She slid a hand into his hair, gripping the back of his head tightly and pushing it towards her own.

All around them, the world burned. Tentacles smashed into the wood of the deck, sending boards splintering in every direction. Water splashed and sprayed, waves churning against the side of the boat, and the Kraken began to rise from the depths of the ocean below, its gaping mouth lined with sharp, piercing teeth.

In the water below, Elizabeth Swann watched from a rowboat with tears in her eyes as one of her only friends in this world was swallowed by the folding ship and the tumultuous ocean below. It had been her fault. _She_ had given Violet the handcuffs, _she_ hadn't even bothered to try and fight for Jack, _she_ should have known that Violet and Jack's destinies were so deeply intertwined that there was no way just one of them would make it out alive.

Next to her, Will Turner was no longer the innocent boy that he had been when he first stumbled upon Jack Sparrow in the prison of Port Royal. He watched as the ship snapped, the mast breaking into pieces, and thought of his father, of all things. Of the father that he was letting die just as his fellow pirates were.

Sitting behind him with an oar in hand, Joshamee Gibbs shook his head at the disastrous sight that was the _Black Pearl._ He'd served Jack for most of his life, and it was hard to imagine living a minute without him. What was he to do now, when his captain was dead? Jack Sparrow was a good man, Gibbs had always known that. And now he had nothing to show for it.

On board the _Black Pearl,_ as the deck began to snap in two and his hand was no longer cuffed to the deck, Jack Sparrow held his pirate captain in his arms for the first real time in his life, and it felt just as he'd always imagined it would. He'd never imagined himself dying, and yet here he was, about to be ripped limb from limb by a massive octopus. And yet, death was not on his mind. The only thing he could think about was _her_ , and how she was by his side. That's the only thing he'd ever wanted, really. Her by his side.

And held tightly in his arms and about to be torn to pieces, Violet Charles was at peace. She loved him. She always had. Even when he'd sold her to Beckett she'd dreamed of him, as much as she'd hated it. He was hers, now, even in death he was hers. And she loved him.

As quickly as it had come, the Kraken destroyed the _Pearl_ and the two souls inside of it, neatly folding it and dragging it into the depths beneath.

And with that, a debt was paid, a man was forgiven, Davy Jones's locker earned two new souls, and a chapter was closed. But unbeknownst to the crew of the dastardly _Black Pearl,_ a new one had just begun.

 _Me and you, love. I told you we were bound to each other._

 **A/N: And just like that we finish** _ **Dead Man's Chest**_ **! I am so incredibly grateful to all of you for your incredibly kind reviews - thank you so much! This chapter took me so long because I wrote like four different endings, and I really couldn't decide which one I wanted. In the end, I chose this one because I think it speaks to both of their characters the most: I had written one where Jack sacrifices himself willingly and although it was very romantic and heart-wrenching, I knew that Jack's character just wasn't good enough for that heroic act :) Maybe one day I'll publish that alternate ending just for fun. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I CANNOT WAIT to give you At World's End, it's my favorite movie and I can't wait to bring Violet into it.**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Ev**


	19. The Locker

**A/N: At World's End! This chapter is a bit of a filler but I was writing it pretty much completely unscripted so that was an interesting experience :) I can't wait to have you see Violet and Cutler Beckett meet once again- her desire for revenge will be a huge motivator for her decisions in the this movie. As always, I love you all and thank you for your kind reviews and for just reading- you make me so happy!**

 **Until Chapter 20! -Ev**

Elizabeth Swann was lost.

Not physically, of course, but she might as well have been as she drifted down an aimless Singapore river, a large hat obscuring her face.

She hadn't been able to stop thinking about Violet since she'd watched the _Pearl_ go down. In her mind, her friend was torn to pieces again and again, drowned over and over until Elizabeth couldn't handle it anymore.

It had been her fault. She'd practically begged Violet to kill Jack, which had been bad enough on its own, but then Violet had ended up going down with him. And for that, Elizabeth would never forgive herself.

"The bell has been raised from its watery grave…" Elizabeth sang quietly, her words swallowed up by the foggy Singapore night. Even when she'd seen Barbossa that night, brought alive by some sort of witchcraft, she hadn't been shocked. All she could think of was Violet, pressing the cold metal handcuffs into her palm.

 _He might even die for you._

And what was she doing now? Will was gone- sent off to steal some of the maps they'd need for their journey ahead, and she had the sinking feeling that he too was in danger. And she was off to face yet another dread pirate lord with nothing but a flimsy plan and a shred of hope. It was bound to go wrong. These things always did.

"Hear its sepulchral tone…" Elizabeth paddled slowly, seeing her destination a ways in front of her. All of this dangerous, all of this wrong- all of it something that the old Elizabeth would- _could_ only dream of doing. And yet here she was, befriending pirates and heading off on a quest that could only end in disaster.

But she would do all of it to save Violet and Jack, no matter what happened. This burden was on her shoulders now, and she would gladly bear it if it meant she could see her fellow pirates again.

Because she was a pirate herself now. There was no doubt of that.

* * *

Violet Charles was fairly certain she had landed herself in hell.

It wasn't really what one might picture hell to be, all burning flames and horns and the bloody devil himself popping out of every corner.

No, this was far worse than that. A massive expanse of salty sand and a cloudless sky and, worst of all, not a single drop of rum in sight.

Entirely spent, Violet lay on said sand, staring up at the empty sky above her. It was completely void of anything, rain or clouds or even a sun, for heaven's sake. She'd been here for what felt like years, just walking around aimlessly on the barren desert.

So this was Davy Jones' Locker, then. She had to say, he'd done a brilliant job with his torture tactics. She couldn't think of anything worse than being forced to spend eternity in a completely silent, empty space, with only her thoughts to haunt her.

And damn, did they enjoy haunting her.

She had to have replayed her death about a thousand times in her mind by now. It felt so distant, like a memory someone else had lived a lifetime ago. But then again, it _had_ been another lifetime, hadn't it.

It was strange to think of herself as dead. She wasn't entirely sure if she was, really. She'd heard stories about the locker: a dismal place where souls who died at sea were trapped, a form of purgatory where said souls were never allowed to pass to the afterlife.

So she wasn't entirely sure whether she was dead or alive. And she wasn't quite sure which she'd prefer.

When she wasn't replaying the memory of being torn limb from limb by the Kraken or crying over the lack of rum, she was thinking of him. Of Jack. Of the way he held her in his arms and kissed her, of the way he'd told her he loved her. And the way she'd said it back.

She needed him, really. There was no other way to say it. And although Violet willed herself to hear his voice in her head, to remember every detail of his face, she could feel the memories slipping, and she wasn't sure how much longer she was going to last in Davy Jones' hell.

* * *

Jack Sparrow had met his match.

This locker would be the end of him. How was he supposed to survive when he was being bombarded by pitiful hallucinations that wouldn't stop babbling at him?

She was the worst of them.

He had no concept of time here, not really, and so when he wasn't yelling at the useless versions of himself that had decided upon crewing his ship or lying on the deck and trying to keep from crying at the lack of rum, he would see her.

Violet would be sitting on the railing, or leaning against the mast, a familiar smirk on her face. Sometimes she'd just watch him, analyzing him. She'd never speak until he talked to her first, which was infuriating because his Violet was never so submissive. _His_ Violet talked whenever she pleased, which was pretty much all the damn time. And Jack loved it.

When he'd first seen her, the very first time, he'd thought it really was her, the two of them having been smiled upon by some god, fortunate enough to spend eternity together. But then she'd smiled at him, and he'd nearly stopped cold. _His_ Violet would never smile like that, all sickeningly sweet and simpering. He'd run the hallucination through with a sword. It had nearly killed him.

Either way, here she was again, sitting cross-legged on the deck across from where he was sprawled out, staring up at the empty sky.

"Go away," he said, not even bothering to look at her. "You're a pitiful recreation, really. The nose is all wrong."

"I don't appreciate that, Jack," Fake Violet said. "You always seem to look on the dark side of things."

"Well then, perhaps you'd like to tell me what exactly the bright side of sitting alone in hell with only you for company might possibly be." He sat up now, staring at the hallucination. She looked real. That was how he got you. Davy Jones, or whoever else was controlling this waking nightmare he was now trapped in.

"You have me for company," Fake Violet said simply, shrugging. "I'd say that's more than enough."

"Yes, darling, but I'm afraid you're missing the point." Jack narrowed his eyes, trying to find a crack in the halluciation, some sort of chink in her seemingly perfect compostion.

"And what's that?" Fake Violet stood up and leaned against the mast, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. Jack wanted to cut her hand off. _His_ Violet would never do that.

"It's that you're nothing more than a figment of Jones' twisted imagination. You're not real," Jack said, lying his head back down on the deck of the ship. "I should know. _My_ Violet is in love with me."

"Is she?" Fake Violet said, raising an eyebrow. "I think a couple of days in the locker might straighten out that particular lapse in judgement."

Jack jumped to his feet as quickly as he could, pulling his pistol out of its holster before the hallucination could even blink.

"How dare you, you slimy little-"

"Oh, don't start with me, Jack. You know, people say strange things in the wake of death." Fake Violet didn't even flinch as Jack raised the barrel of the gun towards her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if dearest Violet was merely a bit confused. You were always throwing yourself at her, anyway."

Jack's hand shook, his finger bumping dangerously up against the trigger. To hear the words come out of Violet's own mouth made his blood boil. "She _died_ with me."

"Oh, don't be so selfish, Jack." Fake Violet crossed her arms, her awful smile deepening. "Her dying didn't have anything to _do_ with you. In fact, I'd put a large sum on the fact that it was Elizabeth the girl was trying to protect. She just had to get you out of the-"

 _Bang._

Jack brought the smoking gun back down to his side, watching the hallucination fade into thin air, a sickly smile still on its face.

 _His_ Violet loved him. She did. And so one way or another, he was getting out of this blasted locker, once and for all.

* * *

It took a month - or maybe it was only a day, Violet really had no way to tell - for something to happen.

She had been digging at the sand for at least an hour, her fingernails chipped and red. She'd found that it was one of the only things that kept her sane - assigning herself a task and carrying it out. So far, her hole was deep enough for her to sit in, and she had to lean her whole torso over the edge to reach the bottom.

Half-submerged in the hole, Violet hadn't noticed what was different until she felt something ruffle the shirt against her back, sending a cold burst of air against her skin. Immediately, she sat up, sending sand flying in all directions.

"What the hell-" she began, scrabbling out of the hole until she was kneeling on the sand, extending a hand to the sky. "Damn it," she groaned when she realized that it hadn't been wind she had felt. What she would give to feel a shift in the air. She was about to return to her hole when suddenly, inexplicably, the ground beneath her began to shake.

It was a quiver at first, barely a whisper, and as Violet began to get to her feet, it grew until it was a full-blown shaking, and she froze. This was it. She was about to be swallowed by the earth and sent down below to the real hell. This must have just been a holding cell, and now she was about to face her judgement. And unfortunately, Violet wasn't entirely sure she would pass. She fell to her knees, raising her hands to the sky. She had never begged for anything in her life, but what the hell. She wasn't alive anymore, so what did it matter?

"Dearest Mr. Jones, I am begging you!" She clasped her hands like she was praying, shaking them vigorously at the sky. "Please don't send me down there! _Please_!"

The ground continued shaking, harder this time, and Violet began to grow frantic, her tone growing more serious. If she was sent to the burning flames of hell that she had first envisioned, she wasn't sure she would survive. Ever since her time with Cutler Beckett, Violet hadn't been entirely fond of fire, and she was even _less_ fond of the notion of hell.

"Please, Jones! You've got to help me! I know I haven't been the best person - not even one of the good ones, really - but I promise not to make any more trouble. I'll stop cursing at you! I'll even stop digging! I'll do anything, _please_ just-"

"Oh come on, love, why would you ask Jones for anything when you've got me to save you?"

A loud voice echoed from above her, and Violet jumped up from the ground, eyes wide at the huge shape that was approaching her. Who the-

Suddenly, her vision focused, and she saw that she was being approached by- a ship. With a man standing on its mast. And not just any man. Her heart nearly exploded with joy as she saw the familiar silhouette, and Violet began to run towards the ship.

"Jack!" she screamed, her voice hoarse from so many days of not using it. "Jack!"

The silhouette began to climb down from the mast and onto the deck, and it was then that Violet noticed that the ship was being pulled across the sand by little rocks. Deciding it was better not to question it, she sprinted towards the side of the ship and grabbed onto the side of it, fingernails digging into the wood. With a groan, she hoisted herself up onto the deck with as much strength as she could muster, her heart beating faster than she ever thought was possible.

She didn't even look at her surroundings before crashing into Jack, who had just found his way to the deck, burying her face in his shoulder. She'd missed him more than she'd ever care to admit.

"Praying to Davy Jones now, are we?" Jack said with a laugh, and she grinned at him, pulling back to stare at his face.

"Oh, shut up," she said quietly, memorizing his features. She wouldn't lose him again. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind, and she pushed him away. "Oh, damn it, Jones, this is just a hallucination, isn't it? A test of some kind?"

"Don't be ridiculous, love," Jack said, folding his arms in mock hurt. "I'm far too beautiful to be a hallucination, wouldn't you agree?"

"Jack, you don't understand, when I was alone-" Violet barely noticed herself shaking, the weight of so many solitary hours of torment crashing down on her. Slowly, Jack moved to wrap his arms around her, but she put out a hand. "Please, just- let me make sure."

"I understand, love," Jack said quietly, stepping back. "I had my fair share of demons to wrestle meself."

"Let's see…" Violet folded her arms, mind racing. "Who's your favorite pirate captain?" Jack looked taken-aback at the words, a smile creeping up on his face.

"Well, I'm sure you'd want me to say you, love, but unfortunately, there's only one captain who has it all: good looks, swagger, and a brilliant mind." Jack stepped closer to her, smirking. "And that, my dearest, would have to be the ever-so-handsome Captain Jack Sparrow."

Violet grinned, grabbing the front of his jacket.

"That's the Jack I know," she said, pulling him down towards her, and she kissed him, all of the memories that had slipped from her fingers rushing back to her. This was her Jack. Apparently not even death could keep the two of them apart. After a few minutes she pulled back, brow furrowed. "But how did you get here? And the _Pearl-_ "

"Was marooned alongside me in the locker, for who-knows-why." Jack put a hand against the mast of his ship. "As for how, your guess is as good as mine. One minute I'm reprimanding my imbecilic crew and the next there's these little rock buggers pulling me ship along."

"Your crew?" Violet asked warily, shaking her head. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

"You're the one who fell for me, captain," Jack said with a gold-toothed grin. "I never said I was sane."

Turning away from him and rolling her eyes, Violet watched as the _Pearl_ crested a huge dune of sand, and it was then that she saw it. Water. The ocean, laid out in all its glory, all sparkling ripples and rolling waves and at its edge- people?

"Who is that?" Violet asked, leaning over the railing of the ship to get a better look as the _Pearl_ careened into the water.

"Is that-" Jack ran up beside her, the two of them peering over the side of the boat.

"It's the crew!" Violet said breathlessly, the faces becoming clear as the _Pearl_ reached the water. "It's Elizabeth! Oh, and Will, and-" She stopped when she saw a tall man wearing a large hat, a scraggly beard growing on his chin. "Barbossa?"

"That son of a-" Jack leaned forward so sharply that he knocked into Violet's back with enough force to send her toppling over the side of the boat, and she crashed into the water, swearing all the way down. Hastily, Jack jumped over with her, a terrified look on his face. She was going to kill him.

Violet emerged from the water soaking wet, and she glared at Jack as he came up beside her, a sheepish grin on his face. "I'm going to kill you, Jack Sparrow," she hissed, and Jack raised his hands.

"Please, Charles, have mercy," he said, grinning at her, his gold teeth sparkling in the sunlight, and she narrowed her eyes.

"I don't think I will," she said, folding her arms and fighting to keep the grin off her face. But how could she be angry, when she was free- finally, _free_ -from the depths of that cursed locker?

And yet, despite her happiness as the crew ran towards them, one face was cemented in the forefront of her mind, for all those hours of her confinement had only brought her one thing- memories. And she hadn't been able to shake them: not when she kept hearing the ringing of her screams in her ears and the hiss of the fire as the metal left its grasp.

She was going to have to kill him. If she didn't, she would never get past it. And so, as she ran towards Elizabeth Swann with open arms, she made up her mind.

Cutler Beckett would die.


	20. Nothing But Ghosts

**A/N: Hello everyone and sorry for the long wait! Now that quarantine has given me so much free time, I will hopefully be uploading a lot faster :) I hope you enjoy Chapter 20 and I am so grateful for all the kind reviews I've been receiving. I can't believe this story almost has 100 follows! It means so much to me that people are reading and enjoying this because it's so much fun to write, so thank you!**

"Elizabeth!"

Violet crashed into the arms of her friend, pushing all thoughts of Beckett and gunfire and murder from her mind as she breathed in Elizabeth's familiar scent.

But almost immediately, memories flooded her brain: dark, painful memories of cold handcuffs pressed into her palm and sweet words that bit into her skin, and suddenly Elizabeth felt cold and unfamiliar in Violet's arms.

"Captain, I-" Elizabeth pulled away from Violet, her expression dark and unwavering as though she was sensing Violet's thoughts.. "I can never tell you how sorry I am."

Violet didn't answer. She wasn't sure she knew how. Instead, she gave the girl a tight-lipped smile and was about to attempt a weak response when she was ambushed by the whole crew, standing in front of her and Jack in a sea of bedraggled clothes and sopping wet hair.

"Well, if it isn't Jack Sparrow and his lady love," said Captain Hector Barbossa, who stepped in front of the rest of the group, already taking a possessive stance. "I can't say I ever thought I'd be seeing you two imbeciles again."

"After all we've been through, I can't say I'm surprised," Violet said, folding her arms. "The dead seem to walk again quite often these days, I would say."

"Oh, enough with the pleasantries, Charles. What in the seven seas do all of you lousy scallywags think you're doing here?" Jack said, sauntering up next to Violet with his arms outstretched in that sort of unbalanced stance he always seemed to hold. "As I recall, many of you were _far_ too eager to see myself and the lovely captain thrown to the beast like some kind of bait."

"Jack, Cutler Beckett has the heart of Davy Jones." Violet's gaze was drawn immediately to Will Turner, who pushed past the rest of the pirates to stand at Elizabeth's side. "He controls the Flying Dutchman."

"Ah, well if it isn't good old William," Jack said, slinging one of his arms around Violet's shoulders, who pointedly grabbed his wrist and removed his arm, biting back a smile. "Come back to your senses then, and realized that we were not the enemy after all?"

"Oh, I haven't changed my feelings towards the two of you." Will folded his arms and stared into Jack's eyes defiantly, far from the young naive boy Violet had nearly been sacrificed to cannibals with merely a year ago. "Jack, you're still a raving lunatic who has a complete lack of judgement when it comes to morals, and Violet, well…" Will trailed off, looking reluctantly at Violet.

"What do your personal grudges have to do with anything, Will, when Cutler Beckett has control of the seas?" Violet threw her hands up in the air, a horrible, dark picture entering her mind, a picture of Beckett's cold smile and harsh laugh filling up her senses. "If he is left to his own devices it will be the end of _everything._ "

"Have you met him?" Will asked, his expression softening slightly at the obvious discomfort on Violet's face. "Beckett, that is?"

"Aye," Violet said, her gaze meeting Will's. He looked at her expectantly, as if he wanted her to say something more, but she didn't oblige him. He didn't need to know any more of her past. The boy had grown on her, and now look at him. She'd failed him, and now his bitterness would be the end of any relationship they once had.

As Will turned to Elizabeth, whispering something that Violet couldn't hear, she couldn't help but think about the time she'd found him on Tortuga, the time she'd told him she'd aid him in his quest to find Jack, the time she'd taken her life and tacked it onto Jack's once and for all.

He was different now. Will was- colder, or maybe he had just grown up. The sea tended to do that to a man, one way or another.

"Jack, the song has already been sung." A woman stepped forward, and Violet recognized her with bitter disappointment. Tia Dalma. As Violet recalled, their last visit hadn't been entirely amiable. "The Brethren Court is called."

At this, Violet saw Jack tense beside her, so small that none of the others would have seen it, but it was enough. She knew enough about the Brethren Court to know that the nine Pirate Lords were not people you wanted to fall out with, and that Jack and Barbossa were two of them.

"Leave you people alone for a minute and look what's happened, everything's gone to pot!" Jack turned away from the crowd, sauntering down across the sandy beach, and Violet rolled her eyes as the crew began to follow him.

"Aye, Jack. The world needs you back something fierce," Gibbs said, putting a hand on Jack's shoulders.

"And you need a crew." Will said pointedly, his sharp gaze locked onto Jack's back.

"We came to rescue you, Jack," Elizabeth said quietly, although the name she spoke was not the name of the person she turned her gaze on, and Violet shifted uncomfortably as Elizabeth looked at her.

"Well, that's all well and good, but why should I sail with any of you? Four of you have tried to kill me in the past. Two of you hate me. And one of you-" Jack gestured uncomfortably at Elizabeth, "has most likely been the very reason for my untimely demise."

"I didn't-" Elizabeth began, but then she fell silent, reconsidering her words. "It wasn't out of malice, Jack. What I did."

"What did you do?" Will asked, and a knowing smile crossed Jack's face.

"Ah, she's not told you. Well, seeing as I possess a ship and you do not, it seems you'll have lots to talk about while you're here." Jack grinned at the two of them, and Will frowned at Elizabeth.

Well, this certainly was an interesting development. Violet's eyes narrowed as she watched Will and Elizabeth, the former picture of love, who were now avoiding each other's gaze. Evidently Elizabeth felt guilty for her coercion of Violet, and she hadn't told Will about it. Violet wondered whether or not she should reassure Elizabeth, tell her it hadn't been her words that had swayed her. And yet, some twisted part of her didn't want to. She _wanted_ to see Elizabeth squirm. And maybe, really, it was Elizabeth's words that had sent her to her death. So maybe she _did_ deserve it.

When Violet looked back at Jack, he had already swept through the rest of the crew, sorting them into those he was taking on his voyage and those he was abandoning behind.

"Well, weigh anchor, all hands! Prepare to make sail!" Jack had seemingly chosen Tia Dalma (much to Violet's chagrin), the entire foreign crew, Gibbs, Marty, and Cotton. Quite the crew. Confident, Jack pulled the compass from his pocket and watched the needle spin around and around until it landed, resolutely, in Violet's direction.

"Well, would you look at that," Barbossa said, laughing coldly. "Which way are you going, Jack? How will you know where to find what you seek when you can't seem to get your mind off of Miss Charles?"

It was then that Violet saw what he was clutching in his hand, and her heart sank. It was the charts they needed. They would, unfortunately, be taking Captain Barbossa with them.

* * *

Violet watched, bored, as Jack and Barbossa fought angrily, striding across the ship like two whining children. Twenty minutes into being back from the dead and she was already missing the peace and quiet of the Locker.

"I'm sorry, Captain."

Violet turned to see Elizabeth leaning on the railing next to her, the two of them overlooking the sea. It seemed like just yesterday they'd been having a different conversation in the same spot. A conversation that only one of them had come back from.

"I know you are." Violet sighed heavily, trying to sort through the insanity that had been the past few days. "I don't blame you for my decision."

"So you do love him, then? After all?" Elizabeth gave Violet a rueful smile, and Violet smiled back, turning out to the sea.

"I think that I do, crazy as that sounds," Violet said, shaking her head. "He is- probably insane, and he drives me to the brink of insanity half the time as well, and sometimes I wish I'd never met him, but-" She trailed off, her thoughts swirling around and mixing with her memories in one tangled mess.

"It's hard to imagine life without him, though, isn't it? I can barely remember the days before I got mixed up with pirates and skeletons and the open sea." Elizabeth set her chin on her arms from where they rested on the railing.

"Neither can I," Violet said with a sigh, and Elizabeth's head turned sharply towards her.

"Good Lord, I can't believe I've never asked you about your past! I suppose I always assumed you were just born a pirate," Elizabeth said, her eyes wide, and Violet laughed.

"Unfortunately no, although that would have made things a lot easier." Violet sighed, looking out at the open ocean, her mind drifting back to days when her feet were firmly planted on dry land. Days when she had a mother. "But my past is rather uninteresting, and I wouldn't want to bore you with the story."

"Well, I won't pry," Elizabeth said, looking up at Violet in a way that suggested she very much wanted to pry. "And besides, I should be-"

"Elizabeth?" The two of them turned to see Will standing behind them, a hardness to his features as he frowned at her. "Might I have a word?"

Elizabeth nodded solemnly and shot Violet a quick smile before following Will, and Violet was alone once more.

* * *

Violet was awoken halfway through the night to Pintel and Ragetti squawking from above deck, and she rolled over in the dingy hammock, sighing loudly. She hated the crew's quarters, and had a long-standing argument with Jack over who deserved the sacred place in the Captain's quarters since the day she had stepped foot on the Pearl. Eventually, she had reluctantly decided that Jack, being the captain of the vessel, most likely deserved the room. To his credit, he had told her he would be more than happy to share it, but that particular statement had sent her running below deck the minute it left his lips.

Now, lying wide-eyed in the dingy, hole-strewn fabric, she couldn't help but wish she had taken him up on the offer. Normally she shared a small room off the main bunks with Elizabeth, but who knows where she'd gone off to tonight. Yawning, she sat up, nearly falling out of the hammock as she did so. Someone had to shut those two idiots up, or they'd wake up the whole ship.

Stumbling up the stairs, she made her way to the dark deck. The sky was- blank, as if someone had scrubbed it of any stars, and it sent an eerie chill down her arms.

"Now it's boats coming!" She turned to see Pintel, Ragetti, and Tia Dalma leaning against the edge of the railing, staring down at the sea below. Of course Tia Dalma would be with them.

"What is it?" Violet hissed, and Ragetti jumped at her voice, nearly falling out of the ship.

"Goodness, miss, you just about-"

"What are you looking at?" Violet repeated, walking over next to Pintel to peer down into the water. "What in the-" She gasped, recoiling back from the sight below her and nearly crashing into the shaggy pirate beside her.

Below the Pearl, millions of little boats were gliding softly down the calm ocean surface, each lit by a small lantern that cast a little circle of cold light around the vessels, a shield from the impending darkness of the night. But it wasn't the boats themselves that made Violet uncomfortable, no, it was there passengers. Inside each boat sat a completely expressionless person, unmoving and cold. They were all ages: young, old, twins, women, men, and the sight took Violet's breath away.

"They're not a threat to us, am I right?" Suddenly Will was beside her, a worried expression on his face as he too stared down below at the passengers. They weren't alive, Violet realized then. They had not yet returned to the land of the living.

"We are nothing but ghosts to them." Tia Dalma's expression was shattering, and the raw sadness on her face made Violet's heart twist. She hated seeing them, these people. Sooner or later one of them was bound to be someone she'd put in an early grave.

"Is best just let them be," a low voice added, and Violet realized that most of the crew had joined them, watching wordlessly as the boats passed by.

Suddenly, Elizabeth lurched forward, pointing at one of the people, and Violet took in a sharp breath. Governor Swann, Elizabeth's white-wigged, well-meaning father was looking forward, his eyes glassy. _Someone has to get to Elizabeth._

"Look, it's my father, we've made it back!" Elizabeth called, her face breaking into a huge smile. "Father, here! Look here!"

"Will," Violet whispered, gently tapping the man's arm from beside her, and Will gave her a small nod, understanding her meaning. This was not Violet's rescue to make.

"Elizabeth, we're not back." The voice came from the other side of the line of pirates, and Violet was surprised at the pain that she heard in Jack's words. It was almost- regret.

"Father!" Elizabeth called, moving up the deck of the ship now, waving frantically.

"Elizabeth, are you dead?" Governor Swann looked up at his daughter, his expression blank, and even in the darkness, Violet could see the understanding begin to wash across Elizabeth's face as tears filled her friend's eyes.

"No, no," Elizabeth rambled, leaning further across the railing. Violet dug her fingers into the wood of the ship, itching to run over to her, but she knew the girl would resent that.

"I think I am," her father said quietly, and Elizabeth shook her head, her eyes shining in the light of the thousands of lanterns below.

"No, you can't be!" she shouted, clutching the railing like it was a lifeline.

"There was this chest, you see. And a heart. At the time it seemed so important," Governor Swann said solemnly, looking straight ahead of his little boat and ignoring Elizabeth's pleas for him to come aboard. "I learned that if you stab the heart, yours must take its place. Sail the seas for eternity. Silly thing to die for."

 _Beckett._ The name entered Violet's mind with such ferocity it burned through all of her other thoughts, and she shook her head. It was Beckett who had killed this man, Beckett who had the heart of Davy Jones. Another victim of that man's insanity.

"Someone cast a line!" Elizabeth shrieked, and Marty came forward reluctantly, passing her a rope. Frantic, she tore it out of his hands and tossed it into the sea below, and Will began to move towards her as Tia Dalma shouted "She must not leave the ship!"

"Elizabeth, I'm so proud of you." Governor Swann's eyes were shining in the glow of the water, and Elizabeth began to sob as his boat began to drift further and further from the line.

"Take the line!" she cried, shaking the rope with all her might. "Come back with us! I won't leave you!"

Will had reached her now, and he enveloped her in his arms as she thrashed, tears running down her cheeks. "Elizabeth," he said quietly, and she buried her face in his shirt, sobbing.

"Terrible, isn't it." Jack had come up behind Violet, and she turned to face him, drawing in a shaky breath. "You're crying, love." She reached up to her face, running a finger under her lower eyelid, surprised. She hadn't realized she'd been so affected by it.

"It's just that I know what it's like. To lose someone so important." Violet couldn't look at Elizabeth, couldn't watch her only friend suffer so deeply. "And it can destroy you."

Jack was silent, for once in his life, and the two of them watched as the crew began to disperse back belowdeck, Will holding Elizabeth as the two of them followed the rest of the pirates, no doubt about to have another much-needed conversation. Soon enough, Jack and Violet were alone once more on deck, the night colder than any other she'd ever had out at sea.

"It's a bit jarring, I'd say. Dead one minute then alive the next and the very next day you're faced with death once again, staring you straight in the face, as if you never did leave." Jack sighed, leaning on the railing next to her, the two of them facing the ship. "We never did talk about the Locker, did we, love?"

"You want to relive that?" Violet said, scoffing in spite of herself, and Jack shook his head, fingering one of the strands of beads that hung from his hair.

"It's not a matter of what I _want_ ," he said, looking pointedly at her. "More of a matter of what I _need_. And what I _need_ is to talk to you. And if you want to talk about the Locker, well then I'm more than happy to oblige."

"You need that, do you?" Violet couldn't help but smile at his sideways way of talking in circles, and she lay her head on his shoulder, suddenly overcome by a wave of emotion that made her want to crumple into a ball. For heaven's sake, she was a lot less strong than she'd thought.

"I need _you_. I think- no I'm fairly certain that I'll always need you, for as long as I live." Jack leaned his head against her own and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and the two of them stood there like that for most of what remained of the night, these two pirates who had seen both sides of the world and come out the victors.


	21. What One Pirate Will Do For Another

**A/N: Aaaaaaaand _next_ chapter we'll finally meet Beckett :) I can't wait, and I hope you all are doing okay in quarantine. Enjoy the chapter! **

"What the _hell_ happened to all the rum?" They had been on the ocean for years, it seemed, and Violet was about to lose her bloody mind. "I swear, Hector Barbossa, if you drank the last bottle I will not hesitate to kill-"

"Ah, yes, but you've threatened me with death before, Miss Charles, and as I recall you didn't seem to do well on that promise, now did you?" Barbossa grinned at Violet from his position near the bow of the ship, and she rolled her eyes.

"Well, I suppose I could make good on it now." Violet made her way over to where he stood, leaning against the railing next to him. "But how much good would that do when we're all about to die anyway? As supposed captain, you certainly don't seem to be helping too much." She directed her gaze to where Jack was hunched over a map, muttering under his breath.

"I'd say your Jack has the situation under control," Barbossa said with a toothy grin, and she rolled her eyes. "He looks right mad, doesn't he?"

"That was most likely your doing," Violet said, giving Barbossa a skeptical look. "Marooning him on an island and all."

Suddenly, before Barbossa could retort, Jack jumped up from his seat and sprinted over to one side of the ship, hanging off the side of the railing.

"Oh, what's that?" he yelled, and Violet shot Barbossa a confused look before they joined the rest of the crew, running over to one side of the boat.

"I don't see anything, Jack." Violet put a hand to her forehead to shield the sun, but nothing but sparkling blue lay before her. "Are you certain you-"

"There!" Jack called again before turning on his heel and sprinting to the other side of the _Pearl_ , and the rest of the crew followed him.

"I told you, Miss Charles. Right mad," Barbossa said, shaking his head as they reached the other side, and Violet couldn't help but agree with him. What the hell was he doing?

The crew continued to run from side to side, blindly following Jack, as usual. Violet was about to give up when suddenly, she felt the heave of the deck below her, and a skeptical look to the chart on the table to her right confirmed her assumption.

"He's rocking the ship!" Pintel yelled, and Violet grinned, sprinting alongside Jack.

"We're rocking the ship!" she crowed, and the rest of the crew echoed their calls as they continued to sprint to each side. Soon enough, the rocking became intense enough that the ship was nearly horizontal, and Violet had to run as fast as she could in order to reach the other side so as not to fall off the ship.

Suddenly, the ship heaved, louder than it had before, and it was like running up a vertical wall as Violet ran to the left side, and she reached up as far as she could, stretching her fingers as far as possible until her nails scraped the wood and she wrapped her fingers around the bar, clutching it with all she was worth as the cargo shifted around beneath her feet.

All of a sudden, her feet were in the air, dangling away from the deck as the ship began to turn completely over, and she sucked in a breath as an unfortunate crew member was unable to reach the other side and was crushed by a cannon on the other side of the boat. Soon, their feet dangled inches from the water, and she sucked in a deep breath as her body was completely swallowed up by the unforgiving ocean.

She clung tightly to the railing as the saltwater stung her eyes, and she could barely make out Jack hanging on beside her through her blurred vision. It was only a few moments before her lungs began to burn, and for just a moment, she wondered if Barbossa was right. If after all that, if after all they'd been through, Jack really was right mad. Suddenly, something flashed across her vision, and she shut her eyes tightly, white spots shooting across her vision as her lungs ran out of air, and she was about to give up, to let go when suddenly, everything began to twist and turn and out of nowhere the ship was moving, the water was clearing and there she was, collapsed on the deck of the _Black Pearl_ and coughing up buckets of water as her throat begged for oxygen.

"Blessed sweet water lilies, we're back!" Gibbs got to his feet, grinning at the sky above them, and Elizabeth stared at it in marvel, shaking her head.

"It's the sunrise," she muttered as the pirates got to their feet, and there was a moment of silence before understanding washed over Violet. They were _back,_ really back, and she was _alive_ again, for heaven's sake. And that meant decisions. And for pirates like them, that apparently meant shooting each other.

Jack, Will, Barbossa, Elizabeth, and Violet quickly found themselves in a circle, each whipping out their pistols to point at the people on either side of them as the reality of their situation settled in. Looking around, Violet watched Elizabeth's lips quirk into a smile, and the five of them laughed suddenly, lowering their pistols as if it was all one big misunderstanding. And it was stupid of them, wasn't it? They were all one crew in the end. And yet, they were still pirates, and in true pirate fashion, it only took a minute before the pistols were raised again and the smiles washed off of their faces.

"All right, then," Barbossa declared, giving Jack a sarcastic grin. "The Brethren Court's a-gatherin' at Shipwreck Cove. And Jack, you and I are a-goin', and there'll be no arguin' that point."

"I is arguin' the point," Jack retorted, waving his pistols around like a madman. "If there's pirates a-gatherin', I'm pointing my ship the other way."

"Are you, now?" Violet said, his words making her heart sink. She had thought, maybe now, things would be different. That maybe Jack would think of something other than himself, just for once. "Cutler Beckett has control of the seas, Jack. You _know_ he needs to be stopped."

"You can't run, Jack," Will said, glaring at Jack, who looked uncomfortable under the heat of so many gazes, and refused to look at Violet.

"If we don't stand together, they'll hunt us down one by one, till there be none left but you." Barbossa narrowed his eyes at Jack, who had pursed his lips, evidently turning the options over in his head.

"Nonsense. I'll have Violet, won't I?" Jack shot her a grin, but Violet didn't return it. Did he seriously think that she'd run away with him, the two of them destined to roam the seas together? She had a job to do. Jack or not, it was one she had to complete, no matter how much her heart clenched at the realization.

"No, you won't," she said quietly, and she wanted to shrink at the surprised look on Jack's face. "I'm going with Barbossa. If the Brethren Court is fighting Beckett, I'm going to be there. And you should be there too."

"Trust me, love, the Brethren Court is not exactly the most efficient way to get things done." Jack's grip tightened on his pistol as he feigned nonchalance, and Violet rolled her eyes.

"Just for once, Jack, think of someone other than yourself. This isn't just my fight, it's- it's _our_ fight. You're a pirate _lord_ , for heaven's sake." Violet's finger settled on the trigger of the pistol pointed at Jack, and she almost laughed at the absurdity of the moment. "You can't keep running."

"Ah, a lover's quarrel. How refreshing," Barbossa drawled, turning back to Jack. "And what do you say to that? She makes a decent point, I'm afraid."

Jack didn't speak for a moment, and Violet stared at him, her mind spiraling. He _had_ to join them. He had to.

"It's not just Beckett we'll be fighting, love. It's Davy Jones who'll be leading the charge, as well as half the British navy, no doubt." Jack's gaze was imploring, and Violet stared at him, incredulous. To ignore the song of the Brethren Court and pretend as though nothing was wrong? As if their world wasn't already breaking into pieces? It really did sound like madness.

"Well, if that's what you truly think, then we'll be needing another pirate lord, won't we?" Barbossa crowed, and before Violet could do something he pulled the trigger of the gun he held pointed at Jack.

"Wait-" Violet began, stepping forward, but the gun merely made a sad clicking sound, and she stared at it in surprise. Confused, the rest of them pulled their triggers, but to no avail, and Violet dropped her pistols with a loud clatter against the deck.

"Wet powder," Gibbs concluded, and Violet sighed, staring at the abandoned pistols from their position on the deck. This battle- it was going to divide the seas, once and for all. Those who stood with the Brethren and those who did not. She could only hope that Jack chose the right side of this war.

* * *

"There's a freshwater spring on this island. We can resupply there, and get back to shooting each other later." Will ran a hand over the charts that lay on the table in front of him, shooting off commands like he was the bloody captain himself. Violet and the crew were huddled around him, staring down at the maps, the pistols abandoned on the deck behind them.

"You can lead the shore party, and I'll stay with my ship." Jack smirked at Will, but the boy was too immersed in his charts to care.

"I'll not be leaving my ship in your command," Barbossa scoffed, and Jack glared at him. Will sighed, obviously not wanting to see another brawl between the two captains, and slammed his hands down on the charts.

"Why don't you both go ashore and leave the ship in my command?" The two captains glared down at Will, who shrugged and gave them a small smile. "... temporarily."

"Perhaps _I_ should be the one left in charge of the ship. You've not exactly a long resume when it comes to piracy." Violet folded her arms, breaking out of the huddled group. She didn't trust the boy, to be honest, and she wasn't about to see their best chance at getting to Shipwreck Cove ruined by William Turner. The boy had a heart full of anger, and, in Violet's experience, anger could turn to vengeance in the blink of one's eye.

"I hardly think that you would be-" Will began, but Barbossa stopped him with a gold-toothed grin, turning to Violet.

"It's settled then. The _both_ of you will be in charge. And I most certainly hope that the ship will remain in one piece when I return." Barbossa tilted his chin up to signal some of the crew to follow him off the ship, and Will put a hand against his forehead, obviously displeased by this turn of events.

"Keep him in check, won't you, love?" Jack asked her half-heartedly, and her face fell for a moment, something twisting inside of her. Why was it never _easy_ to be with him? There were always so many choices, so many rifts that she wondered if they would ever cross them all.

"Of course," she said quietly, nodding slightly, and she watched reluctantly as Jack, Barbossa, and about half the crew made their way over to the rowboats, wondering if she'd made the right choice in trusting Jack with her heart. If any of the choices she'd made had been right.

Soon, it was just Violet and Will and a few stray sailors remaining on board, the silence strange and eerie after the commotion that had taken place just a few moments earlier.

"Why'd you stay?" Will demanded after a few minutes of silence, his gaze trained on Violet as she sat down across the table from him, propping her boots up on its surface.

"Someone has to keep an eye on you, Turner," Violet said lightly, trying to keep the conversation light. He already hated her, and it probably wouldn't be hard to provoke him.

"You don't trust me, do you, Violet?" Will set his head on his hands, giving her a sarcastic smile. "Although, I can't say I really see that as fair. After all, you were the one who shipped me off to Jones without a second thought." The hurt hidden behind his anger was evident, and Violet sighed, taking her boots off the table.

"I do trust you," Violet lied, unwilling to answer his confrontation. She had to steer away from this topic, and fast. It was just essentially just her and Will on this ship, and the man had probably practiced sword-fighting every day of his life. She was a pirate, for heaven's sake, not a swordsman.

"Is that so?" Will nodded to himself, directing his gaze down at the charts. "I had plenty of time to think aboard the Dutchman, see, and what I couldn't believe was that you hadn't said something. I was the one who brought you back to Jack, don't you understand that? And now, look at the two of you. Practically inseparable."

"Will, I'm a-"

"Yes, yes, you're a pirate. I've heard it all before." Will stood up from the table now and Violet echoed the gesture, the two of them staring at each other with a burning intensity. So this was how it would be. "I didn't even care about Jack. It was _your_ betrayal that hurt the most, because you were the only one I thought I trusted on that sea. To help Elizabeth. Although, now I suppose it was for the best, wasn't it? I met my father. And I learned what one pirate is willing to do for another."

"That's not fair, Will." Violet threw a hand in the air, stalking over to his side of the table. But it was fair. It _was,_ and that was what bothered her the most. Why did he and his damn morals have to come in and send her mind spinning? She was a _pirate_. There wasn't time for niceties. "I had to do what I could to help someone I love, just like you've done. You can't possibly-"

Suddenly, something huge flashed in the corner of her eye, and she whirled around mid-sentence, running to the stern of the ship. Looming just a few feet away was a massive ship, trimmed with huge, ribbed red sails and small red flags that billowed out from where they were tied to the mast.

"Damn it." Violet whirled around, grabbing Will's wrist. They were as good as dead if this was what she believed it was. "Listen to me, Will. We have to act fast. This is Sao Feng's ship, I believe you met him in Singapore. He's one of the nine pirate lords, and is completely-"

"It was a mistake." Will's face was so cold and distant that Violet quickly pulled her hand away from his wrist, her face falling. This couldn't be Will's doing. This couldn't.

"What was, Will?" Her voice was shaking more than she'd liked it too, but there was no time for fear, not when they were about to be boarded, and she raised her voice, eyes flashing. "What was, Will?"

"Trusting me." The words were quiet enough to make her sick, and she quickly unsheathed her cutlass, eyes wide. What had he done?

Will unsheathed his own sword and quickly slashed away her first blow, his feet shifting into a fighting stance that she could tell came as naturally to him as breathing.

"How could you do this to us, Will?" Violet thrust her sword at him, her anger making her fighting reckless, and Will parried the blow easily. "A mutiny? Really?"

"It's not because of you, Violet," Will said, his words breathless as he blocked frantic blow after blow, and there was more than a little regret in his voice. "I need the _Pearl._ For my father."

Violet scoffed through gritted teeth, all sympathy for the boy leaving in an instant as she parried Will's first offensive strike.

"Your father never did anything for you, Will. He abandoned you." She was furious now as Will's blows became more and more well-placed, and she began to shuffle backwards across the deck of the ship. "Believe me, I know about good-for-nothing fathers. And you don't owe him anything."

"He did it to save me. You don't understand." Will's blade skimmed her cheek and she quickly jumped away, the blade leaving a thin line of blood across her skin. He was going to win, she realized. She was outmatched and outnumbered, and about to be handed over to one of the most dangerous pirates in the Caribbean.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Captain Coldblood, alive and well." Violet's heart sank as she turned to the voice, the two of them lowering their blades.

Captain Sao Feng stood on the deck of the _Pearl_ , surrounded by at least twenty crew members, with a sickening grin on his face. "I really should thank you, _Captain_ Turner. You're a man of your word."

"And I should hope you're a man of yours," Will said, looking defiantly at Sao Feng, who smiled slowly, the grin creeping wickedly up the side of his face.

"All in good time, Turner. All in good time."


	22. It's Just Good Business

**A/N: Hello everyone! Yikes, it's been a while since I last updated, but I'm back! Looks like I'll never get better with updating in a timely manner :) As always, thank you, everyone, for your kind reviews, I absolutely love them and they make me so happy! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed reading it, and I hope everyone is staying safe. Sending you all lots of love! :)**

* * *

"I need the _Pearl_ to free my father. That's the only reason I came on this voyage."

Violet glared at Will from where she was being held in a corner of the deck, a Singaporean crew member twisting her hands behind her back. Jack, Barbossa, and the rest of the _Pearl_ 's crew had been escorted onto the ship shortly after Sao Feng arrived on board, and the glares most of them were serving Will were filled with such malice she wondered how the boy was still acting so defiant.

"Why didn't you tell me you were planning this?" demanded Elizabeth, her eyes fiery as she twisted around in a pirate's grip, obviously trying to escape his tight hold.

"It was my burden to bear." The words seemed sincere enough, but Will's tone seemed almost mocking as he shot Elizabeth an unreadable look, and Violet couldn't help but wonder if he was referring to something no one understood but her.

"He needs the _Pearl_! _Captain_ Turner needs the _Pearl_!" Jack had made his way to the center of the deck and was waving his arms around like crazy, turning in circles to make eye contact with each and every sailor. "And you and your Brethren Court! Did no one come to save Violet and me just because they missed us?"

A few straggling crew members raised their hands and Jack grinned, gesturing to the motley crew. "I'm standing over there with them."

"I'm sorry, Jack, but there's an old friend who wants to see you first." Sao Feng stepped forward, barring Jack's path. "As a matter of fact, he's requested the presence of Captain Charles as well."

"Who is it?" Violet's voice was much more frantic then she'd have liked it, and her heart rate seemed to spike at the mention of her name. She didn't- no, she _couldn't_ think about the most likely option. It wasn't him. It couldn't be him.

"You'll find that out soon enough." Sao Feng grinned at her with a mouth full of crooked teeth, his leer making her skin crawl. Glaring at him, she elbowed the pirate holding her wrists and wrenched her hands out of his grip, pushing him away.

"Come on, mate, are you sure you want to give the two prettiest faces on this ship away?" Jack's words were full of half-hearted humor, and Violet strode over to where he stood, her shoulder brushing against his.

"I think we'll survive." Sao Feng gestured to his crew, who came up behind the two of them and began to shuttle them towards the side of the ship and to the rowboats below, and Violet knew, at that moment, exactly who she was going to meet. She could only hope she was ready for it.

* * *

Jack and Violet stood outside the door of Beckett's office, an East India Trading company soldier with his gun at their backs. Another man, this time a soldier from the British navy, stepped forward and shoved past them, putting his hand on the door handle.

"He's been expecting you," the man said with a grin, obviously enjoying this, and Violet's heartbeat seemed to speed up to about three times its normal speed as he twisted the handle and opened the door.

In an instant, Violet and Jack were inside the ornate office, the door slamming shut behind them. She refused to look up for a moment, and for just a second, she considered running right back out that door and jumping ship. And then, in that very same moment, Jack's shoulder brushed her own, sending a surge of energy through her very core. She could do this. She could.

"Well, well, well. I must say, I didn't think I'd ever see the two of you together again."

Violet lifted her chin to the desk in the middle of the room, setting her jaw at the sight of the figure in front of it. And yet, it was though every nightmare she'd had, every time his blasted face had wandered through her memories, had prepared her for this. There he was. Cutler Beckett. She felt she _should_ be afraid, she should want to jump out the window of the sight of the burning fireplace in the corner, but something was different this time. She had Jack, for one thing, but there was something else. She was stronger, after all she'd been through since their last encounter, and it was like every little obstacle she'd faced, from joining Jack's crew to nearly being eaten alive to actually _dying_ had readied her. She was a pirate, and the P burned into her flesh only made her more so.

"And yet, here we are!" Jack threw up his arms, a false grin splitting his face, but Violet felt him move a little closer to her, the two of them steadying each other. Both knew too well just how dangerous Cutler Beckett was.

"I can't express my surprise enough." Beckett stood up from his desk and walked to the front of it, his short height putting the top of his head at the level of Violet's nose. "The last time I had you here, you made your distaste for Sparrow _abundantly_ clear. It's ever so good to see you again, Violet."

"I'm afraid I can't say the same." She forced herself to meet his gaze, twisting the corner of her mouth into a kind of half-smirk. "You look as awful as usual. Is it possible you got shorter in the time I was away?"

"I see you are as clever as ever," Beckett drawled sarcastically, her insults not having her desired effect on the man. "You know, it's curious. Your friends appear to be quite desperate. Perhaps they no longer believe that a gathering of squabbling pirates is enough to take down the Flying Dutchman. And so despair leads to betrayal. But the three of us are no strangers to betrayal, are we?" He turned to Violet as he said the words, his gaze boring into her, and she set her jaw. She couldn't let his words worm their way under her skin.

"Where's the heart?" she spat, and Beckett's face folded into a sickeningly polite smile.

"I'm afraid it's not here," he said casually, looking from her to Jack as if trying to judge the nature of their relationship. "It's safely aboard the Dutchman, and so unavailable for use as leverage to satisfy your debt to the good Captain, Jack."

"Ah, well, by my reckoning, that account has been settled." Jack's gaze was drifting, wandering across the various items of Beckett's collection as if he still believed the heart was in there, tucked behind a globe or shoved in the back of a cupboard.

"And yet, here you are." Beckett walked over to his window, peering outside. "I must say, I was rather surprised when I'd heard of your deaths. It was rather unfortunate that you accompanied him, Violet, seeing as I've often dreamed of killing you myself."

"The feeling is mutual." Violet folded her arms, the cabin air seeming colder than usual.

"Still, I was even more surprised by the news of your survival," Beckett continued, pacing his cabin like he was performing a monologue. "What a crew you must have to sail to the ends of the world to find you. Such _loyal_ pirates. Unfortunately, all that loyalty will be put to waste if Davy Jones does indeed discover that his two most favorite pirates remain in the land of the living."

"Are you planning on bargaining?" Violet suddenly grinned, realizing something. They held the ace, didn't they? It was Jack alone in this room who knew of the meeting place of the Brethren Court, and Jack alone who could get them there. "I suppose you think you're rather intimidating, don't you, Beckett, strutting around here with the bloody Dutchman at your disposal."

"I certainly do," Beckett said, his polite smile chilling her blood. "I am, as you say, in control of the seas. And it won't be you I'm bargaining with, Violet. You seem to know relatively _nothing_ when it comes to what I'm concerned with."

"And no doubt what you are concerned with is the Brethren Court, I assume?" Jack stepped over to a large portrait of Beckett on the wall, mimicking the face and position of the painted Beckett's form. "If I were to divulge you said information, I would expect fair compensation. Square my debt with Jones and the like."

"Of course," Beckett said, returning to his desk. "It's just good business."

"What is that you want to know?" Violet demanded, and Beckett laughed dryly.

"Everything." He picked up a coin from the table and dropped it languidly onto the wood. "Where are they meeting? Who are the pirate lords? What is the purpose of the nine pieces of eight?"

"I suppose we could make that arrangement, if my reward is equally as enticing as that information," Jack drawled, and Violet put her hand on his arm, gripping it tightly. They had to be careful about this. Any information they gave to Beckett had to be veiled in lies or else they had no chance of defeating him. Jack's end goal might be to run, but Violet wouldn't just stand by and let the Brethren Court fall to ruin.

"I _see_ ," Beckett said, his gaze falling pointedly on where Violet's hand gripped Jack's arm, and she quickly pulled away. "You will want the _Pearl_ back, I assume, and safety for your crew. I suppose you would also like me to keep Jones in the dark about this whole _situation._ "

"You can keep Barbossa, the belligerent homunculus and his friend with the wooden eye both, and Turner... especially Turner." Jack gave Becket a lazy grin, who was watching him with chilling intensity. "The rest go with me aboard the Pearl, and we will lead you to Shipwreck Cove, where we will hand you the pirates and you will _not_ hand me to Jones. Bloody fair deal, don't you think?"

"Fair, you say," Beckett mused, tapping his fingers absent-mindedly on his deck. "And what of Miss Charles? She has no use in this bargain. I doubt she even knows where Shipwreck Cove is, unless you've already told her all of your _deepest_ secrets, Jack."

"What interest is she to you?" Jack's tone was cold, brittle, and Violet shifted uncomfortably next to him. She didn't like the way her name sounded from Beckett's lips.

"Are you saying you want to make a bargain of our own, Beckett?" Violet narrowed her eyes, and Beckett smiled cruelly.

"You and I are so alike, aren't we, Violet?" Beckett strode over to the window again, looking out at the deck of his ship. "We know the value of good business."

"What is it that you want?" Violet demanded, and she could sense Jack's unease from beside her. Beckett would only be playing this game if he had an ace up his sleeve, and it was killing her that she had no idea what that ace was.

"I think the better question is what is it _you_ want?" Beckett turned to stare at her, eyes glinting in the dim light of the cabin. "I happen to know that Captain Sao Feng has taken a special _interest_ in your dear Miss Swann. They are no doubt bargaining for her at this very moment."

His words sent a shiver up Violet's spine, and she tensed unwillingly. Elizabeth was not safe at the hands of that man, and it wasn't like Barbossa would think twice before bartering her off. Violet needed to get to her.

"You're willing to get me there? To Sao Feng's ship?" Violet knew there was a good chance she was walking into a trap, she could _feel_ it, but part of his words rang true. Elizabeth was not safe at the hands of a cruel pirate like Sao Feng.

"Of course. I am a reasonable man, after all." Beckett walked over to Violet until he was inches from her face, staring up into her eyes and challenging her to meet his gaze. "However, I have but one request. I want you to kill James Norrington."

Norrington. Violet hadn't thought about that man since they'd fought on the top of that old mill, his face strangely sad as he'd told her about how she'd ruined his life. However, he had been the one to get them all into this mess, and was no doubt the one who'd delivered the heart of Davy Jones straight to Beckett. So what did she care whether he lived or died?

"Why do you want him dead? Has he not been a good little lapdog lately?" Violet gave Beckett a sarcastic smile, and he waved a hand in the air nonchalantly.

"It has been, well, difficult lately to keep up the pretense of the righteous British soldiers naiive little Norrington still believes us to be," Beckett drawled, tapping on his desk again. "And I am _tired_ , Violet. Being in control of the seas can do that to a person, you know. The _Dutchman_ is planning an assault on the _Empress_ , Sao Feng's vessel, this evening. If you kill him in the heat of that battle, away from any prying eyes, well, it will make my life _so_ much easier. I wouldn't have to come up with an excuse to execute him and all that taxing business."

Violet found herself looking at Jack, trying to weigh his opinion on the bargain, but he was silent, not meeting her gaze. But it didn't matter, did it? She had no weapon to kill Beckett now, so she might as well bide her time. If it was a trap she was walking into, well, she knew how to handle herself. They didn't call her Coldblood for nothing. Jack had his own plan, and one that she knew she shouldn't interfere with. She could save Elizabeth and maybe take out a few of Beckett's allies on the way, and then, hopefully, they'd escape, preferably with Sao Feng in captivity or simply his piece of eight. She didn't know much about the Brethren Court, but she was fairly certain that either would work for the assembly of all nine pirate lords.

"Done," she said finally, extending her hand, and Beckett shook it, her skin crawling with every second his flesh touched hers.

"Good," Beckett said. "I trust you'll want to say goodbye to your dearest Jack? We can conclude _our_ deal without you, as it happens."

"Jack." Violet turned to him, and he met her gaze, something unsaid sparkling in his eyes. "You've been uncharacteristically silent."

Suddenly, Jack slid his arms around her, enveloping her in his embrace, and he pressed his face close to her ear, his hair brushing against her cheek.

"I do hope you know what you're doing, love." Jack's words were a hushed whisper, and she hoped Beckett couldn't hear them. "It's not often that _I'm_ the one left out on a convoluted scheme."

"I guess you're rubbing off on me," Violet whispered back, smiling against her will. "I'll see you soon, Jack."

"Stay alive, love. I'll give that little runt Turner a good kick especially from you." Jack grinned at her as he pulled away, and when she turned back to Beckett, she found her heartbeat less frantic, her mind clearer. Beckett would die by her hand, yes, but she could bide her time. She'd waited three years, what was a few days more?

"How touching," Beckett drawled, a slow smile on his face. "Timothy will see you out. Take her to the _Dutchman_."

"I'll see you soon, Beckett." Violet gave Beckett a slow grin as one of the soldiers by the door, decked out in British red, stepped forward, and grabbed the back of Violet's arm.

"Oh, I'm counting on it," Beckett said, a cold glint in his eyes.

Violet didn't dare look at Jack as she left, but she shot one last glance at Beckett as she left the cabin, wondering if she'd just made the biggest mistake of her life, and was not reassured by the mocking smile that rested on the trading lord's lips.

* * *

"Well, if it isn't Violet Charles."

Violet had been standing on the barnacled deck of the _Dutchman_ as it set out following Sao Feng's red-sailed ship, watching the ocean bubble beneath the boat when the clipped voice drew her out of her stupor.

"Well, if it isn't my dearest _Commodore_." Violet turned to face the man, taking in his crisp, starched appearance. It was strange, standing on the deck of this ship, surrounded by strange mutants and British soldiers alike, just how at home he looked. " _How_ I've missed you."

"What place do you have on the _Dutchman_?" Norrington folded his arms, a dark look on his face, and she noticed the sword attached to his belt. All of a sudden, it was like a thousand splinters of memory flooded back to her, and she was back on the _Dauntless_ , covered in sand and laughing as she told Norrington he had the makings of a pirate in him, the same sword hung from his belt. She'd come so far since then.

"Elizabeth is in danger," she said simply, as if that answered his question, and he shifted uncomfortably, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "I see you went running straight back to Beckett. Last I saw you, you were swinging an oar at my head."

"Elizabeth is with Captain Sao Feng?" Norrington looked surprised at this news, and Violet scoffed, leaning back against the railing of the ship.

"Well, well, well. Looks like Lord Beckett doesn't tell us everything, does he?" She sneered at Norrington, but it wasn't half as fun mocking him when his only response was a heavy sigh and a weak shrug. This was not the same man she'd sparred with scarcely a year ago.

"I thought you had died," Norrington said, "but apparently that news was too good to be true."

"You're sweet." Violet took in his trimmed appearance and found that she almost liked him better as a haggard, drunk pirate. "I did die, unfortunately, but that particular obstacle has been overcome."

"How disappointing." Norrington didn't look at her, his eyes staying firmly on the horizon, and although she'd been sent to kill him, she felt some sad sort of sorrow for him in the pit of her chest. He seemed almost broken.

"The real question is," Violet said, folding her arms, "why are you wasting your time with a lunatic like Beckett? I know you, Norrington, better than I'd like to, and you're living a borrowed life here. You _belong_ as a pirate, whether you like it or not."

"You don't know me at all." Norrington whipped around to face her, a dark look in his eyes. "There's nothing for me _anywhere_ but here. I don't have a crew like you do, a lover I can go running back to when things don't go as planned. This is the only place I do and ever will have."

"Do you want to know something, Norrington?" Violet stared into his eyes, wondering what had happened to this man. There was a depth behind those eyes she'd never even begun to understand. "I don't think you really know yourself very well at all."

"I wouldn't expect _you_ to understand," Norrington scoffed, "you're practically drunk on the sea every time you step out onto a ship. I'm sure you've even been _branded_ a pirate at one point or another."

"Do you want to know who branded me a pirate?" Violet was angry now, tired of his moping and his self-indulgent questions. This man was a walking disaster. "It was your precious _Beckett_. And I may be a pirate, but at least _I_ didn't hand him the most dangerous object on the open ocean. At least _I'm_ not responsible for the downfall of the bloody seas !"

"I don't know why I even ventured over to talk to you in the first place. It's like trying to converse with the worst parts of myself." Norrington glared at her and turned on his heel, stalking off across the deck.

"If I'm the worst part of you, Norrington, then you must be a bloody brilliant man!" she shouted after him, but he was already gone, and she leaned back against the barnacle-encrusted railing, sighing heavily. This war of the seas was impacting far more of her than she'd imagined.

* * *

 **A/N: BTW the new picture of Violet on the cover of this story is drawn by my sister! :)**


	23. Choosing a Side

**A/N: Surprise! A new chapter! Now that online school is done, I have a lot more time to write, and so hopefully chapters will be out a lot quicker now! This one was a lot of fun to write, so please enjoy :)**

* * *

By the time they reached the _Empress_ , Violet was ready to jump off the seaweed-drenched ship and straight into the open ocean below.

First of all, there were too many British soldiers milling about for her to ever truly relax, and she stayed on deck for as long as she could, clutching the railing until the day faded into night and the entire ship was covered in an eerie darkness that seemed to creep in from all sides.

"Charles." She turned to see a British officer standing a few feet away from her in the dark, shifting sheepishly as if he was too afraid to come any closer to her than was necessary. "The cannons are at the ready. We'll be boarding in a few minutes."

She merely nodded at the soldier before turning back to the sea in front of her. Even in the dark, she could see the ribbed sails of Sao Feng's ship dimly floating against the dark sky, and she couldn't help but think it strange that they would weigh anchor in the middle of the ocean. Sao Feng must have placed a lot of trust, quite wrongly, in Cutler Beckett.

The night was quiet, and it was almost laughable that this peace would soon be interrupted by the clashing on cannonballs and gunfire. Without turning around, she heard soft footsteps behind her, and she knew exactly who it was that had come to call.

"Are you planning on jailing Elizabeth, then? I'm not sure how well she'll take that news." Violet knew Norrington was behind her without looking, and she found it rather annoying that he kept coming back, trying to worm his way into another conversation that would no doubt lead to an argument.

"I will follow Lord Beckett's orders, if that's what you're asking." Norrington moved to stand next to her again, leaning back against the railing and watching as soldiers scurried about the deck, preparing the cannons. "And I assume you will too. I know you're here on a mission for him, don't even try to deny it."

"I won't." Violet gripped the railing with one hand as the ship slowly turned, drawing level so that it was side by side with the _Empress_ , and she wondered why the ship was almost completely quiet. Why wasn't Sao Feng fighting back? "How will it feel, I wonder, to imprison the girl you once loved?"

"Don't," Norrington said quietly, staring at her with quiet intensity as one of the British soldiers shouted 'Ready your fire!' "We're about to board and I _don't_ need another one of your lectures."

Suddenly, before Violet could retort, the boat shook with the first shot of a cannon, and she watched breathlessly as the iron ball crashed into the Captain's cabin of the _Empress_ , the wood tearing in two and splintering into the air.

"Prepare to board!" The call screeched across the ship, and Violet shot Norrington a look before the two of them made their way to the edge of the boat, following the swell of soldiers preparing to disembark.

Quickly, they moved over to the deck of Sao Feng's ship, her hand on the sword she'd been given by the British soldiers, and the second she set foot on the _Empress_ , it erupted into chaos, a million voices shouting all at once.

"Attack! Show no quarter and round up the prisoners! Lord Beckett's orders!" A British soldier screamed the command over the fray, and Violet pulled forth her sword from the sheath, swinging it at a nearby Singaporean pirate. Their blades clashed in the cool night air, the sound ringing through the boat, and she advanced forward, parrying blows and swinging the blade in clean arcs towards the pirate, eventually skewering him through the heart with one swift jab.

She had to find Elizabeth. No, she had to find Norrington. Which to go after first? Standing on her tiptoes, she searched the fighting crowd for her friend, but Elizabeth was nowhere in sight. _Where is she?_

All of a sudden, Norrington flashed into view, locked in combat with another pirate as another cannon blast shuddered through the creaking ship. Quickly, she leveled her sword in front of her, twisting past British soldiers and pirates alike as she followed Norrington. He made his way to the edge of the ship before he was able to finish his enemy, blood staining his crisp white collar. She had him now.

Swiftly, she raised her blade while his back was turned, the sharp point ready to run him through.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, and then she was swinging the blade forward, the metal flashing in the moonlight, and she wasn't thinking, wasn't feeling, she had to do this, had to-

She didn't have to do anything. What was she doing, taking orders from Beckett? She was a pirate. She didn't take orders from anyone.

"What the hell-" Norrington had turned around as her blade hovered inches from his skin, midway through running through his body. "You stopped."

Violet stared at him, breathing heavily, the rush of adrenaline fading as she stood there, her sword pointed at his heart as he faced her. She had stopped, and what did that make her? She didn't even _like_ Norrington. He was a traitor, a lily-livered soldier who ran off to Beckett without a second thought. But killing him would be to help Beckett, to further his mission, to allow his control over the seas to continue. And Violet knew that Beckett as lord of the seas would be a fate worse than death.

"He told me to kill you. Beckett." Behind them, the Singaporean first mate was surrendering, and the British troops were circling the group of pirates, swords and pistols raised to keep them in line. They'd taken the ship, but where were Elizabeth and Sao Feng?

"And you could have." Norrington's expression was a cross between fiery anger and complete surprise. "So why _didn't_ you?"

"Because I'm not Beckett's servant." Violet was angry too, completely fed up with this man. He'd called her a lost puppy, once, but it seemed the only follower here was him. She slowly lowered her blade, and with the other, shaking hand, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down to face her with an aggressiveness that surprised even herself. "And _neither_ are you."

"Violet!" The high, lilting voice echoed through the boat, and Violet let go of Norrington's shirt, ignoring his surprised face as she turned, spotting Elizabeth rounded up in the crew of pirates.

"Elizabeth!" Violet ran over to her, pushing past armed British soldiers to embrace the girl, taking in her new attire, which was strangely elaborate for something one might find on a pirate ship. "Where's Sao Feng?"

"Dead," she said quietly, and she opened her fingers to show Violet something in her palm: a small metal token attached to a leather strap, and Violet assumed it was some kind of necklace. "This is his piece of eight. I am Captain of this vessel now, and I must make my way to Shipwreck Cove."

"You'll be doing nothing of the sort," the British official in front of them sneered, and Violet glared at him. "All of you will be heading to the brig. _Including_ you, Captain Charles. Lord Beckett's orders."

So it _had_ been a trap. Beckett had shuttled her along, probably hoping he'd get Norrington killed in the process, and all of it was to trap her when she felt the most comfortable. And she'd gone along with it, even when she'd _known_ she was walking into something she'd regret.

"Are you certain that's a good idea?" Norrington was next to the British official, his gaze cold and unwavering. Violet hadn't thought he had it in him. "Charles here _was_ on business from the Lord himself."

"James!" Elizabeth ran to Norrington, embracing him, and Violet couldn't help but snicker at the utter embarrassment on the commodore's face. She'd forgotten how close he and Elizabeth had been.

"Thank God you're alive! Your father will be overjoyed to know you're safe." Norrington smiled at Elizabeth, but at his words, the girl's face darkened, and she pulled away from him, retreating back to Violet's side in the middle of the circle of British soldiers.

"My father's dead," Elizabeth said coldly, and Violet sighed quietly. If nothing else, _this_ had better knock some sense back into Norrington.

"No, that can't be true, he returned to England!" Norrington's words were a plea, as if he was begging for Elizabeth to be joking, praying that this wasn't just one more thing he had been left in the dark about.

"Did _Lord Beckett_ tell you that?" Elizabeth's face twisted into a sneer, her gaze growing cold, and Violet knew that she had made up her mind.

"Who among you do you name as captain?"

The thickly accented voice sent a chill through Violet's blood, and she moved closer to Elizabeth, her hand on the hilt of her sword. In retrospect, she supposed she should have known that Davy Jones would be here. The _Dutchman_ was still his ship, after all.

"Captain? Her!" To Violet's surprise, all of the Singaporean pirates pointed to Elizabeth, who looked at Davy Jones with a defiant smile.

"Captain?" Jones' surprise was evident, and his head turned between Violet and Elizabeth in quick succession. "And why did no one tell me _she_ was sailing aboard my ship?" He pointed an accusatory tentacle at Violet, who merely shrugged, a mocking smile on her face.

"Were you kept out of the loop as well, Jones? Seems like that's a recurring theme around here." Violet grinned at Jones, trying to keep her demeanor aloof, but she could feel the air almost tense around them. There were holes in Beckett's operation, she realized, holes like Norrington and Sao Feng and Davy Jones. If she could get ahold of them before Beckett realized they were a problem, they might lead to his ultimate undoing.

"Tow the ship," Norrington demanded, and his eyes met Violet's as he finished, "and put the prisoners in the brig. The captain can have my quarters, and Charles can stay in the galley."

"The galley?" Violet scoffed, hardly believing his words. He would have her sleep on the bloody kitchen floor after all she'd done for him? "I think I'll take the brig, thanks."

"And _I_ would prefer to stay with my crew." Elizabeth drew closer to Violet, her gaze burning into Norrington's.

"I swear I did not know, Elizabeth," Norrington said quietly, his voice full of remorse. "I didn't know any of it."

"Know what? Which side you chose?" Elizabeth's face twisted into a cruel smirk, and she moved back to stand with her crew. "Well, now you do."

The soldiers moved in around the crew, surrounding them and pushing them towards the _Dutchman_. Violet stared at Norrington before she passed him, her heart burning with resentment. She'd given him a chance, and this is what he'd chosen to do with it. He was more of a fool than she'd thought.

"Charles-" He grabbed her arm for a moment, his expression drenched in remorse, and she ripped it out of his grasp, turning away.

" _Don't_ ," she hissed, and before he could say anything more, she followed Elizabeth and the Singaporean crew, deciding that she'd better start planning their escape. She'd walked willingly into a trap, and now she was going to have to get herself out of it.

* * *

Violet sat on one side of the large cell, not caring that the slimy, barnacle-covered floor of the _Dutchman_ was no doubt ruining her trousers. Sighing heavily, she pried yet another barnacle from the ground and threw it at the bars of the brig, letting the _clang_ echo through the cell.

She wasn't in the same cell as Elizabeth, much to her chagrin, and the only other occupant of her small, dingy compartment was the first mate of the _Empress_ , who had introduced himself somewhat reluctantly as Tai Huang. She remembered him, unfortunately, as one of the sailors who'd rescued her and Jack from the Locker, and then one of the sailors who'd eventually mutinied against them.

"Were you close to your captain?" Her weak attempt at starting a conversation was not met with a response, and she picked up another barnacle, chucking it at the bars.

"Could you stop that?" Tai Huang said indignantly, and she did, her hand hovering above the ground from where it was about to pluck up another one of the small sea creatures.

"I'm sorry about Sao Feng." Violet shot him a cautious look, deciding that if they were going to be locked up together, it was better they be friends than enemies.

"It does not matter," he said, not looking at her. "Sorrow doesn't do a dead man any good."

"Fair enough." She leaned back against the wall, stretching out a leg when suddenly something dug into her ankle. Curious, she sat up and reached into her boot, pulling something cold and round from within it. Her heart clenched as she saw what it was, and she gripped it tightly in her hand, the ridged edges digging into her palm. It was the piece of eight, the very coin Jack had given to her back at Port Royal. She hadn't realized how much she missed him until now, the weight of the past few hours crashing down on her all at once. "But being a pirate is like that, isn't it? You can lose the thing you love most in a matter of seconds."

"I suppose it is." Tai Huang turned to her now, his eyes on the coin in her hand. "Who have you lost?"

"My mother, for one." She turned the coin over in her hand, unsure of why she was telling this man, who she didn't even know, something that she hadn't told anyone. "But we lived on Tortuga, and what do you expect from a place like that?"

"That is much different from losing a captain." Tai Huang's gaze was softer, and it was like his guard lowered just a little. "Captains can be replaced. Mothers cannot."

"You're right," she said, nodding, realizing that Tai Huang's words were his own way of telling her that he, too, was sorry for what they both had lost, and she couldn't really explain why they made her both sad and hopeful at the same time. "But that doesn't mean that losing either of them doesn't hurt like hell."

He smiled at her, then, the first smile she'd ever seen him give, and he opened his mouth to say something when suddenly they could hear voices coming from Elizabeth's cell next to them. She was speaking hurriedly and was answered by rushed, clipped words. Norrington.

In an instant, Norrington was at their cell door, flanked by Elizabeth and the rest of the crew. Tai Huang and Violet stood up at once, flocking to the door, and Norrington looked at her with an urgency in his gaze. Fumbling with the ring of keys in his hand, he quickly unlocked the door, pulling it open with a sharp creak.

"What are you doing?" Violet demanded, and Norrington grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the cell, and gesturing for Tai Huang to do the same.

"You were right, Charles." He began to walk up the stairs to the deck, Elizabeth and Violet closely following behind him. "You were right about all of it."

The deck was cold, the night air mixing with the sea breeze and chilling Violet to the bone. Above them, stars dotted the expanse of black above them, the moon casting the boat in a silver sort of shadow.

"Do not go to Shipwreck Cove." Norrington beckoned them forward, and they crossed the deck quietly, heading towards the stern of the ship. Violet could see the Empress in the distance, and it was then that she realized Norrington's plan. "Beckett knows of the meeting of the Brethren. I fear there may be a traitor among them."

"It's too late to earn my forgiveness," Elizabeth said coldly, and Violet felt a small stab of pride for the girl, who was more of a captain then she'd ever realized.

"I had nothing to do with your father's death." They had reached the stern now, and Norrington gestured to the rope towing the _Empress_ behind them, pushing the crew to start climbing across it to reach the ship on the other side. "That doesn't absolve me of my other sins."

The pirates were making their way over now, all of them grabbing onto the rope and shimmying across until it was only Elizabeth and Violet left, both of them staring intently at Norrington.

"Come with us." Elizabeth grabbed Norrington's arm, his eyes filling with tears that glinted in the starlight. "James, come with me."

"Who goes there?" Suddenly, a voice tore through the silence, accompanied by pounding footsteps, and Violet put her hand on Elizabeth's shoulder, steering her to the rope.

"Go. I will follow." Norrington's eyes were full of anguish, and Elizabeth shook her head, one hand on the rope.

"You're lying!" Elizabeth's eyes were wild and her voice was pained and raw. "Violet, tell him!"

"I will, I will, but you have to _go_ , Elizabeth!" Violet pleaded with her friend, and Elizabeth took a last look at the urgency in Violet's eyes before clinging to the rope, wrapping her ankles around it and beginning her climb across it.

"Go, Charles. Don't make this harder than it has to be." The footsteps were getting closer now, and Norrington began steering her towards the rope.

"I'm not leaving you." She pushed his hand off of her shoulder, gripping his arm. "I didn't spare your life just for you to waste it on this damned ship."

"You have to, Violet. _Please_!" Norrington sounded frantic, and as the stranger drew closer Violet stopped, her hand still on his arm. The sound of him saying her name, her _first_ name, made her make up her mind once and for all, and she quickly unsheathed her cutlass.

"I'm not letting you die, you idiot." Gripping onto his arm with all her might, she pushed him as hard as she could over the railing, watching as he tumbled into the ocean below and landed with a splash. She could see his surprised face looking up at her all the way from up on the deck, and as soon as the barnacled, pale pirate that had spoken came into view, she began to saw at the rope connecting the ships with her cutlass, severing it strand by strand.

"No one leaves the ship," the pirate babbled, and it was at that minute that her blade cut through the rope, sending Elizabeth and the rest of the crew hanging onto it down into the ocean below.

"Well, unfortunately, I do." She grinned at the pirate, her teeth flashing in the moonlight, and with one great jump she pulled her legs over the railing and threw herself into the ocean below, the wind whistling threw her hair as she plummeted downwards, gripping her cutlass for all she was worth, and as she reached the quiet waves below, Violet could only hope that she had made the right decision.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Saving Norrington was a change I knew I wanted to make from the beginning of writing this story. I have always thought he has such potential as a character and that his death at the hands of Will's father was incredibly bleak. I can't wait to give you the next chapter, and as always, thank you so much for your kind reviews. Sending love to you all!**


	24. And So, We Shall Go to War

**A/N: This is the longest chapter yet! I hope you all are doing well :)**

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Violet heaved herself up onto the deck of the _Empress,_ coughing and spluttering as she purged the salty ocean water from her lungs. It had felt like pushing through sand as she'd made the long swim to the ship, and it didn't help that the Singaporean crew had already started to crew the ship away from the _Dutchman_ while she flailed against the waves.

As she stumbled to her feet, her clothes soaked and dripping onto the wood below, the deck was bustling with activity, and every pirate who knew how to sail was doing so, guiding the ship further and further away from the _Dutchman_ until Violet could barely see it on the dark horizon.

"Violet! Oh, I can't- I'm so-" Elizabeth threw her arms around the soaking pirate, and Violet smiled at her, wrapping her own arms around her friend. "You saved him. I can't believe it," Elizabeth whispered against her wet hair, and Violet pulled back, grinning at her.

"Well, I wasn't going to let him die without a proper apology for all the times he's been an utter nuisance, was I?" She was about to launch into a tirade about Norrington's antics when the man in question walked towards her, abandoning his post now that the ship was on a smooth course to who knows where.

"Why did you do it?" Norrington's expression was unreadable, his eyes burning with something much stronger than the moonlight. "Why would you save me when you had _every_ reason to let me die?"

Violet didn't reply for a moment, her pointed gaze fixed on Norrington. Why had she done it? How could she answer that, when she barely knew the answer herself?

"You once asked Elizabeth Swann to marry you," she said finally, every word circling three times over through her mind, "and I hated you for it, I cursed you and your selfish, stuck-up little ways. In all honesty, I still do."

She paused, stepping closer to Norrington. There were tears in his eyes, she realized, the starlight glinting off of them, and it was then that she knew that this man had never known true freedom.

"But there's _more_ to you, Norrington, more than either of us really understand, I think. I knew it from the moment you let go of Elizabeth, the moment you asked to join the crew of the _Black Pearl_ , the moment our blades crossed on that island." Violet sighed heavily, raising her chin to stare into Norrington's shining eyes. "I don't like you, Norrington, I don't know if I ever will, but there's a pirate in you, and I'd be remiss if I didn't make you a part of my crew."

Norrington was silent for a moment, his eyes locked on hers, and then, suddenly, he stepped towards her, enveloping her in a crushing embrace, and Violet froze, her fingers brushing against his sea-soaked jacket.

"Thank you," he said, pulling away and breathing heavily, shaking his head. "You are the _last_ person I'd ever thought I'd saying this to, but I'm indebted to you."

"I'm not very fond of debts," Violet said, still a little flustered from his sudden embrace, "but I do have one request." Stepping forward, she grabbed a curl of his sopping white wig and pulled it off his head, revealing tousled brown locks that spilled out onto his shoulders. Grinning, she tossed the wig over the side of the ship, watching it bob in the choppy waves. "Good riddance."

"Captain!" Tai Huang was at their side now, accompanied by some of his crewmates, looking equally soaked by their earlier swim. "What's our heading?" He was looking at Elizabeth, Violet realized, at she beamed at the very notion of it. Miss Swann, a pirate captain.

"Well, if Violet agrees, I believe we should make our way to Shipwreck Cove." Even as she spoke, a sort of captainly air seemed to come over Elizabeth, and she looked more confident than Violet had ever seen her before. The sea did wonders for Elizabeth Swann. "I seem to have been made a Pirate Lord, and I think it's best for us to regroup with the _Pearl_." At the mention of the _Pearl_ , Violet and Elizabeth exchanged a look, the two of them recognizing each other's pain in an instant. They both had someone they loved on board that ship.

"I told you, Beckett knows of the meeting of the Brethren Court!" Norrington stepped forward, and just like that, Violet was back to being annoyed by everything he did. "If we sail to Shipwreck Cove, there is no guarantee that we'll be safe."

"Shipwreck Cove is a stronghold, Norrington. I think we'll be fine." Violet gave him a sweet smile as Elizabeth shook her head, obviously disappointed that they'd fallen back into their old antics. "Or are you still afraid of Beckett?"

"Of course not," he said with a sarcastic grin, "but I'm not exactly fond of being shot at by the British navy."

"Shipwreck Cove it is, then!" Violet crowed, throwing an arm around Elizabeth's shoulders. "Pirate Lord Swann needs to arrive in time for the meeting of the Brethren, after all."

* * *

The journey to Shipwreck Cove was, unfortunately, longer than Violet had anticipated. Tai Huang and the Singaporean crew had assured Violet and Elizabeth than they knew the way, but it quickly became clear that they would arrive late to the meeting of the Brethren, and the sky was darkening rapidly. Violet was about to give up hope of making it to the Court when suddenly, Tai Huang gave a shout, and she rushed over to the bow of the ship, following the first mate's gaze.

"Holy-" Violet's words caught in her throat as the wide expanse of Shipwreck Cove came into view, the sight taking her breath away. Thousands of ships appeared to be stacked on top of each other, built up into a sort of massive city-like structure, each dotted with the warm light of a hundred lanterns, flickering through glass windows and signaling life within the ships. "It's beautiful."

" _This_ is your stronghold?" Norrington was beside her now, his voice full of disbelief. "It doesn't seem particularly strong."

"That's exactly what a soldier would say." Tai Huang turned to face Norrington, his arms folded across his chest. "Shipwreck Cove is the safest place on these waters. Nothing is getting through, especially not your little navy."

"Whatever you say," Norrington said, obviously still not thrilled by the teetering structure in front of them, and Violet grinned at Tai Huang. Finally, another person to help her gang up on Norrington, as heaven knows Elizabeth liked him too much to ever back up Violet's side of their arguments.

They weighed anchor in the port in front of the stronghold and made their way through the curving pathways between ships, the long line of pirates twisting through the complicated routes as they followed Tai Huang, who seemed to be the only one them that knew where they were going.

Violet's heart thrummed with each step, and she watched Elizabeth cautiously, watching as the Pirate Lord's expression became more and more worried with every step. She knew what the girl was feeling. Violet was fairly certain she felt the exact same way. Pirates could be unruly, and there was truly no telling if the Brethren would come to an agreement of how to dethrone Beckett.

Also, there was the matter of seeing Jack again, which was twisting her heart into knots just thinking about it. She had missed him fiercely, but every time she thought of him it only brought up all the questions she had about his motivations. Would he even be there, or had he run off in hopes of escaping Jones, and had he made good on his promise to lead Beckett straight to the meeting?

"In here!" Tai Huang's voice interrupted her swirling thoughts, and she followed him and the rest of the crew inside a tall, creaking ship, passing through a hole in the side of it and into a warm, dimly-lit room from which arguing voices poured out of.

"I think this is it." Elizabeth grabbed Violet's hand as they entered the ship, her face pale, and Violet gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze.

"Give them hell, Pirate Lord." Violet grinned at her friend, and Elizabeth's face lightened a bit, her lips attempting a weak smile.

With one last look at Elizabeth, Violet entered into the warm room, and suddenly, she could see them: the Brethren Court, sitting around a long wooden table with their crews standing behind them in a cramped configuration.

"Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us." The familiar voice echoed through the crowded room, and Violet froze as her eyes locked onto the speaker, who was standing at the head of the table, leaning on the wood like he owned the place.

"Jack." The word was a whisper, barely audible over the din of the pirates, but it was enough, and Jack Sparrow's head turned almost immediately, the hope clearly visible in his eyes as his gaze fell on her. The room quieted suddenly as he took two determined steps toward her, and in an instant, he had his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. Damn, she'd missed him.

"I thought you were dead, love." His voice was raw and pained, and she laughed at his blatant display of emotion. "I heard about the _Dutchman_ , and I didn't know- I thought-"

"Missed me, did you?" she teased, and Jack grinned at her, his gold teeth catching the light.

"More than you want to know." His face was so daring, so bold, that she leaned forward and kissed him, knowing it was neither the time nor place but not really caring either way. He smiled against her lips, obviously surprised, and deepened the kiss, his hands sliding down her back. She tangled a hand in his hair, ignoring the catcalls and whistles from the other pirates around them, and laced her other arm around his neck. She could kiss him all day like this, she decided, and she didn't want to let him go for the world, for anything, and all she could think about was _him_ , and-

"I hate to interrupt this little _display_ , but _where_ in the seven seas is Sao Feng?" Barbossa's harsh voice cut through the fog in her mind and she quickly pulled away from Jack, running a hand through her tangled hair, as she looked around at the table of grinning pirates. Bloody hell, what was wrong with her, kissing him in the middle of the Brethren meeting? She'd obviously missed him more than she'd thought.

"Ugh, Hector, why do you always have to be such a killjoy?" Jack slung an arm around Violet's waist, pulling her to his side, and Barbossa rolled his eyes as Elizabeth stepped forward.

"Sao Feng is dead." Elizabeth's voice had a cool sort of clarity, and the pirates fell into disarray the second her words were spoken. "He fell to the _Flying Dutchman_."

"And made you captain?" Jack shook his head in mock disapproval, the rest of the pirates looking on with interest. "They're just giving the bloody title away now."

"Listen," Elizabeth said, obviously irritated with Jack's giddy antics, and Violet elbowed the man at her side, giving him a look. "James had informed us that our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett, they're on their way here."

" _James_?" Jack stared, incredulous, as Norrington moved awkwardly out of a shadowy corner of the room, slipping between pirates, and the room seemed to collectively hiss at his British uniform. "Pardon my confusion, love, but what the _hell_ is this land-lubber doing here?"

"Your _love_ here was the one who saved my life," Norrington said with a grin, stepping deliberately next to Violet, and Jack's gaze seemed to blacken. "It seems only fair I joined her crew in reparation."

"More _importantly,"_ demanded one of the pirate lords, his stare menacing, "who is this betrayer the soldier speaks of?"

"Not likely anyone among us," said Barbossa, his gaze as innocent as a pirate captain can muster, and Violet turned just in time to see a flash of something glint in Jack's eyes. Had Jack actually betrayed the information to Beckett? Her heart ached, and she desperately wanted to ask him, but now was hardly the time.

"Where's Will?" Elizabeth's voice was full of emotion, and Violet realized that indeed, the boy was not in the room. She couldn't say she was upset by this fact, however. Will Turner wasn't exactly her closest friend.

"Not among us," Jack said passively, and the pieces fell into place. _Will_ was their betrayer, wasn't he? It hurt to imagine it, Will helping that monster, but it had to be him. Who else could it be?

"And it matters not how they found us. The question is, what will we do now that they have?" Barbossa was at the head of the table, now, addressing the Court like he was the bloody Pirate King. The table of pirate lords fascinated her, each one a commanding presence, and she couldn't help but wish that she was one of them.

"We fight!" Elizabeth's voice rang out around the room, and the pirates looked suspiciously at her.

"Shipwreck Cove is a fortress, a well-supplied fortress," said the only female pirate at the table aside from Elizabeth. Violet recognized her immediately as Mistress Ching, scourge of the seas, and she couldn't help but feel a little starstruck. She'd grown up on the stories of her adventures. "There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us."

"There is a third course." Barbossa stepped forward, once more enthralling the attention of the Court. "In another age, at this very spot, the first court captured the sea goddess, and bound her in her bones. That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye, but opened the door to Beckett and his ilk. Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. You all know this to be true. Gentlemen, ladies. We must free Calypso."

The table erupted into shouts at Barbossa's declaration, calls of 'shoot him!' and 'cut out his tongue!' filling the air, and even Jack was joined in, releasing his grip on Violet to join the fray.

"Now you see why I don't like pirates," Norrington said quietly, and Violet snorted, watching the chaos in front of her. "And what's all this talk of Calypso?"

"She made some deal with Barbossa, I think," Violet said, staring at the man in question, who was quietly observing the brawling in front of them. "I think he assumes that if we release her, she'll help us win back the seas."

"That sounds like a fool's logic," Norrington scoffed, and Violet shrugged.

"You'd be surprised how many times fool's logic has been relied upon by pirates," Violet said.

"That's not surprising to me at all," Norrington said with a grin, and Violet laughed, before remembering that she hated Norrington and quickly stopping herself.

Suddenly, Barbossa was climbing onto the table, and before Violet could make a smart remark, he let off a round of shots into the sky, silencing the brawling pirates. "It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso, and we will be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons."

"Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive twaddlespeak, says I." Jack was shaking his head solemnly, and Violet tried to hide her smile. _Get it together, Coldblood._

"If you have a better alternative, please, share." Barbossa gave Jack a sarcastic smile, obviously exasperated, and Jack grinned at him, turning to Violet and grabbing her by the hand.

"Cuttlefish. Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish." Just like that, Jack had launched into one of his speeches, and Violet shook her head, rolling her eyes at the captain. Of course he'd figure that _this_ was the best way to get his point across. "Flippant glorious little sausages. Pen 'em up together and they'll devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it?...or...or fish nature."

"Have you ever actually seen a cuttlefish, Jack?" Violet began, but Jack waved a hand, dismissing the comment, which just confirmed that he had not, in fact, seen one.

"So yes, we could hole up here well-provisioned and well-armed and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems grim to me any way you slice it. Or, as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we could release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful. I rather doubt it." He linked his arm with Violet's ad began to slowly walk around the table and passing by each pirate lord in turn. "Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipso loquitur tabula in naufragio."

"The thing speaks by itself, a plank in a shipwreck," Violet translated, remembering a life on Tortuga, bottles of rum, a bed of hay, and a little red book called _Proverbs of the Sea._

"How do you know Latin?" Jack asked, surprised, and Violet shrugged flippantly.

"How do _you_ know it?" she retorted, and Jack grinned back at her.

"Touche, love. Anyhow, we are left with but one option. Returning to the dear cuttlefish, we must remember that these cephalopods will battle one other at any cost, especially when it comes to protecting their mates. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are comin' out of me mouth, Captain Swann. We must fight." Jack finished with vigor, extending his hands as he and Violet returned to the end of the table, and pirates stared at him, open-mouthed. Violet, on the other hand, wasn't sure if she'd ever been this happy in her life. He was going to fight. Her Jack, her cowardly, mad, pirate captain was going to stand up and fight. And to protect his mate, no less.

"You've only ever run from a fight," Barbossa scoffed, and Jack shot him a look of mock injury, folding his arms over his chest.

"I second that," shouted Norrington from the other side of the room, and Violet, and at least half the other pirates in the room, glared at him.

"Have not!" Jack said indignantly.

"You have too," Barbossa retorted, and Violet rolled her eyes. Just lie that, all chivalry had died, and the two of them were back to their child-like selves.

"What does it matter? He's not running now, is he? And neither should we!" Violet shouted across the table at Barbossa, and was suddenly vaguely aware of the fact that this man was, in a way, responsible for her relationship with Jack. "If you claim to be a pirate, then you must defend the sea! We _must_ fight, for if we do not, we give up all that we love to someone who will kill us all, regardless of if there is a battle. Do you really think Beckett will just let us all roam free if we surrender peacefully? We are not the only pirates on the sea, Barbossa!"

"Exactly!" Elizabeth shouted, grinning at Violet, and the pirates all turned to stare at her loud outburst. "Exactly."

"Well, that's all well and good, Charles, but as per the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king." Barbossa stared defiantly at Jack, who threw up his hands.

"You made that up!"

"Did I, now? I call on Captain Teague, Keeper of the Code!" Barbossa's words echoed through the room, and Violet almost started laughing at the tension that seemed to rack Jack's body. She knew exactly who this Teague was, a year of sailing with the talkative Jack Sparrow had made sure of that.

"Sri Sumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly!" shouted a crew member of one of the Pirate Lords, and he was midway through shouting out something else when suddenly, a crack echoed through the cabin, silencing all stray conversations. Immediately, the pirate fell over, dead, and every head swiveled in the direction of the smoking gun which had dealt the fatal shot.

"Code is the law." The cool voice made Violet jump, and both she and Jack swiveled around to see Captain Teague standing behind them, giving them each a cold stare. "You're in my way, boy."

Silently, Violet and Jack stepped away from each other, ending up on either side of Captain Teague as he marched through the gap they'd left in between them. Behind him, two bearded old men brought forth an enormous book, and set it down with a large _thump_ on the Brethren's table.

"The code." Violet's words were a breath as she stared at the book, this volume of guidelines that had defined her life for longer than she could remember.

"Hang on a minute," Jack said, and he began to flip through the massive novel, turning over page after page as the Brethren watched, captivated. Violet kept her gaze forward, not wanting to make eye contact with the fearsome Captain Teague. It didn't help that the man was also Jack's bloody father. "Huh. 'It shall be the duty of the king to declare war, parlay with said adversaries…' Fancy that."

"There's not been a king since the first court, and that's not likely to change." One of the Pirate Lords, a French-looking gentleman with a heavily plumed hat, addressed the Court indignantly.

"Not likely," Teague repeated, his voice sending a shivers down Violet's spine. He sounded like Jack.

"Why not?" Elizabeth asked from across the table.

"Because the king is elected by popular vote," Gibbs replied, and Violet's heart warmed at the sight of him. Good old Gibbs.

"And each pirate only ever votes for himself," Barbossa confirmed, and Violet sighed. This meeting was taking an excruciatingly long time, and without a king, it seemed it would continue indefinitely.

"I call for a vote," Jack said suddenly, and Violet stared at him from behind Teague's back.

"What is wrong with you?" she hissed, and Jack shot her back a grin, obviously trying to inform her that he knew what he was doing. Needless to say, she didn't believe him.

Round and round, the nine Pirate Lords each called out their own name, each declaration followed by a bout of cheers from the crew members stationed behind them. Elizabeth voted for herself half-heartedly, followed by Barbossa, another Pirate Lord, and then-

"Elizabeth Swann." Jack's declaration sent the room into uproar, and Violet met Elizabeth's gaze from across the table, who looked utterly shocked. Violet couldn't help but grin as the pirates all turned on Jack, shouting at him. Elizabeth was the obvious choice, Violet realized. That girl was stronger than many of the pirates she knew.

"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Jack said loudly, and the pirates were silenced by Teague's glare. Evidently, he was not someone they wanted to anger.

"Very well," Mistress Ching said, folding her arms over her chest, "what say you, Captain Swann, king of the Brethren Court?"

Violet watched as Elizabeth took a deep breath, gathering herself, and she gave her friend a reassuring smile.

"Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war."

* * *

When the pirates finally cleared out of the room to prepare their ships, one after the other, the lamplight was dying out, and only Jack and Violet remained, leaning against the now severely scratched-up oak table.

"Evening, Coldblood."

Violet's head jerked up from where she had rested it on Jack's shoulder, and stared straight into the eyes of Captain Teague.

"Oh! Er, evening, Captain. I wasn't aware that you-" she began, but Teague's dark chuckle silenced her, and his eyes caught the lamplight in a dancing way that reminded her too much of Jack.

"Of course I know you. Jackie couldn't shut up about you, last time I saw 'em." Teague turned to his son, smiling sadly at him. "How are you, boy?"

"Alright." Jack took Violet's hand, interlacing his fingers through hers, and holding it up deliberately to show his father. "The good captain and I are going to war soon, you see."

They were, Violet realized. The reality of _war_ hadn't really sunk in for her yet, and it was hard to believe that in a few hours they'd be out on the sea, blades clashing and blood staining the wood of the deck.

"I never like to go to battle while in love." Teague turned his gaze on Violet, who wasn't entirely sure what to make of his words. "It'd be a terrible business if one of you didn't make it."

"Cheery, aren't you?" The words left Violet's lips before she could stop herself, and she clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes widening. "Oh, damn it, I didn't mean-" Her apology was silenced by Teague's sudden burst of laughter, and she stared at the captain, utterly confused. Was this the man who had killed a pirate without a second thought only moments ago?

"I can see why Jackie likes you," Teague said, his words interspersed with dark chuckles. "The two of you are more alike than you think."

"Well, I'm sorry you had to put up with such a son," Violet said tentatively, and Teague laughed again, ignoring Jack's offended look.

"Keep him out of trouble for me, won't you, Coldblood?" Teague reached out a hand, and Violet let go of Jack's, clasping it with a smile and shaking it once, twice, three times.

"I'll do my best, Captain."


	25. And Where is Your Heart Leading You?

Violet stood on the deck of the _Black Pearl_ , her eyes on the dark horizon which would soon be filled with rows of enemy ships. It was close to two in the morning, and she hadn't been able to sleep for even a minute. The ship was eerily quiet considering the amount of snoring pirates that were sleeping below the deck, and she ran a hand along the railing of the ship.

This ship had once meant nothing but pain to her, and now, standing here on the deck, it was like coming home. Teague's words still hummed through her head, haunting every thought that crossed her mind. _I never like to go to battle while in love. It'd be a terrible business if one of you didn't make it._

She had never thought about what it would be like to lose Jack, but it now seemed to be the only thing on her mind. Where would she go? What would she do? She'd have to get her ship back, certainly, the vessel that she'd lost all those years ago, but who would crew it, and to where?

She wasn't naive enough to ignore the fact that Jack was eyeing the heart of Davy Jones. Immortality appealed to him, she knew that, and yet, the thought of seeing her captain only once every ten years made her sick. Their destinies were now far too intertwined for that.

"Can't sleep, love?"

For a moment, Violet was certain that his voice was part of her thoughts, but then she felt his hand on her shoulder, and she turned to him, the darkness of the night settling on the ridges of his face.

"No," she admitted, sighing heavily. "And I suppose you can't either?"

"I had a hand in the boy's betrayal, you know." Jack said the words so nonchalantly that it took Violet a minute to register them, but when she did, her face fell. She'd known it, of course she had. Jack was a man of his word.

"I know." She didn't want to fight him, didn't want to have a shouting match, not when the biggest battle of their lives lay only hours away. "But Will has always followed his heart. I doubt even you could have stopped him, had you wanted to."

"A nasty business, following your heart," Jack said, his teeth glinting in the moonlight. "Gets you into all sorts of trouble." At this, he grinned at Violet, taking her hand in his.

"And where is your heart leading you? To that of Davy Jones?" She held his hand as tightly as she could, the thought of losing him still very prevalent in her mind. Maybe it was the night and the darkness and the wind, but something in the words made her want to cry.

Jack didn't answer right away, and Violet knew from years of standing at his side that this meant she was right.

"Before the Locker, I didn't care who had to pay for it, as long as I came out the other side alive and kicking," Jack said, his voice low against the night air. "I won't lie to you, love, I know you're far too smart for that. To roam the seas as captain of the _Dutchman_ , to live forever, well, it sounded like a better fate than dying at the hands of some measly land-lubber just because I wasn't able to weasel my way out of some battle or two."

"Where is your heart leading you, Jack?" Violet stared at him, her gaze unwavering, and Jack looked up to meet it.

"My heart belongs only to you, love. It always has." Jack stepped forward and took Violet in his arms, embracing her tightly, and Violet willed the tears to leave her eyes. "And I'll follow you to the ends of the world. Wherever we go, we'll go."

Violet couldn't speak, could barely even breathe, and she buried her face against the shoulder of his jacket, her arms around his neck. His answer had scourged her mind of doubt, had drowned her in a state of almost-calm, and she wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. To think that barely a year ago, she'd despised him. Now, she couldn't live without him.

"No matter what happens tomorrow, know that all of it has been for you," Violet whispered finally, her voice thick with tears. "I love you, Jack Sparrow. Savvy?"

Jack pulled back for a second to stare at her, a bemused grin on his face, and Violet smirked at him, raising an eyebrow. She'd waited her whole life to say those words.

"And I think I have never been as bewitched by anyone as I am by you, love," Jack said, and she kissed him before he could say another word, the two of them locked in an embrace under the stars as both the sun and the war slipped over the horizon to meet them.

* * *

As the morning dawned, more and more pirates found their way on deck, and the neighboring pirate ships lit their own lanterns one by one, their dim lights flickering against the cloudy morning sky. Pirates milled about on deck, preparing the sails and drudging around in a dreamlike state, when suddenly, the _Endeavour_ emerged from the mist, sending the customary jolt of excitement and anticipation through every pirate's blood.

At first, Violet and the rest of the crew brandished their cutlasses and pistols, cheering and preparing to fight in what looked like an easy battle. Suddenly, however, what seemed like a hundred other ships began to slip through the fog, an armada of huge cannons and clipped white sails that silenced any shouts of a simple fight.

Violet's heart dropped. This really was a war, and suddenly, she wasn't sure whether or not they'd make it out the other side the victors. In all her time as a pirate, she'd never faced such an obstacle. But somewhere, standing mockingly on the deck of that yellow ship, was Cutler Beckett, and the very thought of his face sent a stab of fury through her bones.

This was where she would end him, she realized, and without a doubt, Violet knew at that moment that the world was no longer big enough to hold both her and Beckett. By the time this battle was through, one of them would be dead by the other's blade.

"Are you still prepared to fight?"

Violet turned to see a glimpse of a red uniform and a head of tousled brown hair and she sighed. She would know that cynical voice anywhere.

"I think the better question is what are you still doing here?" Violet shook her head, taking in Norrington's bedraggled appearance. "I would have thought you'd escape long ago."

"Did you forget that I owe you a life-debt, Charles?" Norrington raised an eyebrow at her, his expression almost light-hearted. "Besides, I don't think I could escape this war even if I wanted to."

"So whose side will you fight for, then?" Violet asked.

"I will fight with you," Norrington said, his gaze on the horizon. "I will fight by your side for as long as this war wages, Charles, because you and I have an understanding that I share with no one else in this whole world."

"Say it," Violet said suddenly, unable to keep herself from smiling at his words. To think of how far the two of them had come was unbearable, so she just focused on the moment, on the way he threw back his head and laughed at her words. "Say what you are, Norrington."

"I'm a pirate." Norrington grinned at her, a real, pirate grin, and Violet laughed despite herself. "As I recall, you were to be the first to know if I turned."

"That I was, mate," Violet said, holding out a hand, and Norrington took it, shaking it once, twice, and with just one gesture the two former enemies forged a bond that was unbreakable, the kind formed by years of hatred and jests and blood and tears that can only come from two people who are on opposite sides of the same coin. "That I was."

* * *

Violet watched Elizabeth pace the deck, a determined look on her face, as Jack muttered 'Parlay' under his breath. Finally, the Pirate King stopped in front of Violet and Jack, shouting for Barbossa to join them.

"We'll meet Beckett on that spit of land over there," she said, pointing to a thin strip of sand leading out from Shipwreck Cove, and Jack gave her a lazy grin, one hand on his sword.

"Are you saying that you're taking my advice, King Swann? I am truly honored," Jack said, dipping into a bow, and Elizabeth shook her head as if reprimanding a petulant child.

"This is no time for joking, Jack. You, Barbossa, Violet, and I will meet them and negotiate the terms of this fight. If they will not surrender, then we go to war. There can be no backing down now, not when the very lifeblood of the sea is at stake." Elizabeth had such a look of pained fierceness on her face that Violet was moved by her expression alone. This woman, Violet realized, had lost so much to the sea, and yet she was still fighting for it. That showed unmatchable courage.

"And what of me?" The pirates turned to see Norrington striding up to their tight-knit group, his brow furrowed. "You can't possibly expect me to wait here, biding my time while you confront the man who once wanted me killed."

"I'm certain that Beckett thinks you dead, James," Elizabeth said, her expression softening slightly. "It's better for you to remain here. Proving you alive would lose one of the few aces we have up our sleeve."

"I suppose you have a point," Norrington said reluctantly. "But if one of you does not come back alive, I hope you will consider adding me to your little circle here."

"Oh, not to worry, mate, you're first on the waiting list," Jack said, his tone mocking, and Norrington rolled his eyes, striding back off across the deck.

"Let's be off, then." Elizabeth stared off at the sandbar, her mind obviously a million miles away. "To Beckett."

 _And to Will_ , Violet wanted to say, but she didn't. She could only imagine the toll being away from her love for so long was taking on Elizabeth, even if the boy was a traitor.

* * *

Barbossa, Violet, Elizabeth, and Jack strode across the sand, the tension thick in the air, From the other side of the spit of land, Violet could make out three figures, one short, one tall, and one standing in a bucket of water. It wasn't hard to guess who'd be meeting them there.

"You be the cur who led these wolves to our door." Barbossa spat the words the second they got into close enough range of the three men, and Violet tensed at the sight of the receiver of them. Will looked horrible, his face haunted and his clothes ragged around his form. Evidently the strained nature of his relationship with Elizabeth was not only affecting the Pirate King.

"Don't blame Turner, he was merely the tool of your betrayal." Violet's blood boiled at Beckett's voice, this demon, this monster, who was daring to tear away everything she knew. "If you wish to see its grand architect, look to your left."

Violet looked to her left, and sure enough, there was Jack, looking away to his own left in a laughable attempt at confusion.

"My hands are clean in this," Jack said, holding up his hands in mock surrender and then quickly putting them down at the sight of his dirty fingernails and rusting rings. "Figuratively, that is."

"My actions were my own and to my own purpose. Jack had nothing to do with it." Will's voice was raw, but Violet couldn't help but hide a smile at the fact that he was still the same stubborn boy she'd met on the _Pearl_ all that time ago. He hadn't changed, she realized. A little less innocent, sure, but maybe he'd always been meant for the sea. Will had pirate in his blood, after all.

"Will, we've been aboard the _Dutchman_." Elizabeth's voice was kind, but there was a tremor of fear underneath it, and Violet realized that in the cell next to hers, that night in the brig of the _Dutchman,_ Elizabeth had met Bootstrap Bill. "I understand the burden you bear, but I fear that cause is lost."

"No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it," Will said, staring determinedly at Elizabeth.

"If Turner was not acting on your behalf, Jack, then how did he come to give me this?" Beckett grinned, holding up Jack's damned compass. "You made a deal with me, Jack, to deliver the pirates, and here they are. Don't be bashful, step up, claim your reward."

"You really believe Jack is clever enough to puppeteer William in such a way?" Violet scoffed as Beckett tossed Jack his compass, but she knew Beckett was right. Jack was smarter than all of them, and she could only hope he'd known what he was doing.

"Ah, good morning, Violet. I see you didn't hold up your end of our little bargain, now did you?" Beckett grinned at her surprise. "Yes, I know that Lieutenant Norrington is alive. Have you moved on from Jack so quickly?" Violet's heart sank. So he did know.

"You might consider washing that wig of yours, Beckett. You're starting to look like our good friend Norrington back in his drunken pirate days." Violet glared at the man, but his jibes had had their desired effect, and hers, undoubtedly, had not.

"Sparrow, your debt to me is still to be satisfied. One hundred years in service aboard the Dutchman. As a start." This time, it was the tentacled creature who spoke up, and Violet had to admit that Davy Jones looked far less menacing standing in a bucket.

"That debt was paid, mate," Jack said, folding his arms. "Surely you haven't forgotten that Violet's and my stay in your godforsaken Locker."

"You escaped!" Jones shouted, the sound startling Violet, and Jack waved his hands around in regular Jack fashion.

"We _died_ , Jones. What more could you possibly want?" Violet was getting angrier by the minute as the reality of their disadvantaged position grew clearer and clearer. Jack's debt was the one thing that controlled him, Violet was certain of that. As long as he was in debt, there'd be no freedom for either of them.

"I propose an exchange!" Elizabeth interjected Violet's thoughts, stepping forward. "Will leaves with us, and you can have Jack."

"Done," Will said, before Violet could say anything. What was she _doing_?

"Undone!" Violet threw a hand in front of Jack, glaring at Elizabeth. "You'd really hand him over to Beckett, Elizabeth, when you _know_ he's our best shot at winning this war?" Violet searched her friend's face for some kind of remorse, but Elizabeth's face was hard, only a flicker of sadness glinting in her eyes. "For heaven's sake, he's a pirate lord! I know you love Will, but-"

"I want Charles, too." Beckett's cold voice cut over Violet's frantic arguments, and Elizabeth looked calculatingly from Jack to Beckett to Violet and back again.

"Done," Elizabeth finally said, but this time, there was pain in her gaze, and Violet narrowed her eyes.

"Undone." Jack shot Elizabeth a pointed glance. "Violet has no part in this."

"Done," Beckett said, his gaze cool and serene as he turned his eyes on Violet. "Welcome back, Charles."

Violet was about to fight back, to pull out her own sword and start slashing, but something in Elizabeth's eyes made her stop, and she glanced swiftly at Jack. There was a higher plan, she realized then, and everything slowly began to fall into place. Jack's offer with Beckett, the compass, Will's betrayal. They'd all been moves, pieces on a chessboard, all leading to this one moment. If only people would _tell_ her about the plans instead of being so secretive, maybe she wouldn't accidentally ruin them.

"Fine," she said, folding her arms as Barbossa snatched one of Jack's beaded chains from his hair. His piece of eight. "As the Pirate King commands."

With one last look at Elizabeth, Violet and Jack slowly switched places with Will, and as they passed, Violet could have sworn the boy, that stubborn, idiotic boy, looked sorry.

"You'd better know what you're doing," Violet hissed in Jack's ear as they took their new place on the opposite side of the sand, and she watched as he smiled.

"Give me a little credit, love," Jack said, turning his brown eyes onto her blue ones. "I'm a pirate lord, after all."

"Well, now that that's settled, advise your brethren, you can fight and all of you will die," Beckett said, turning back to Elizabeth, "or you can not fight, in which case only most of you will die."

"You murdered my father," Elizabeth spat, venom in her eyes, and Violet felt another stab of pride. They'd all been changed on these seas, but no one so much as Elizabeth. It seemed so long ago that she'd was a dress-wearing, rum-burning governor's daughter when now, she was as much a pirate as any of them.

"He chose his own fate." Beckett was nonchalant, speaking of Elizabeth's only relative as if he was nothing, and Violet's fingers curled into a fist. She hated him more than anything else in the entire seas.

"And you have chosen yours," Elizabeth said. "We will fight, and you will die."

"So be it," Beckett said mockingly, and Elizabeth began to turn to leave, but before she did, she shot one last glance at Violet, obviously trying to put in everything she'd never said with words. _Lead them well_ , Violet thought, her heart constricting as Elizabeth turned away and set off down the beach, Will and Barbossa at her side. _You have the heart of a pirate. If anyone can save the seas, it's you._

"Now, I suppose the question is, what will we do with the two of you?" Beckett pursed his lips, raising an eyebrow at Violet. "We certainly can't leave you free to fight. You always seem to cause such _trouble_ when not kept in a cell."

"I want Sparrow." Davy Jones gestured to Jack with a tentacle, and the captain beside Violet recoiled uncomfortably. "We've unfinished business."

"Well, that works nicely," Beckett said, turning promptly on his heel and beginning to march off across the sand. "Lock them in the brig of the _Dutchman._ Do _not_ let them escape."

"Is this part of your plan?" Violet demanded, acid in her tone at the look of delight on Davy Jones' face.

"Of course," Jack said, and Violet groaned at the look of naked fear on his face. "It's all part of the plan."

* * *

"This was not part of the plan." Jack slammed his shoulder into the bars of the cell for what must have been the hundredth time, and Violet rolled her eyes, leaning against the opposite wall.

"Oh, was it not?" Violet spat, shaking the bars in front of her. "And here I was thinking that getting locked up in a cell was an excellent way to win this war."

"You don't happen to have a metal rod, do you?" Jack asked, turning back to her, and she laughed darkly, the sound swallowed by the emptiness of the brig. It was only two days since she'd last been in this very cell, and she couldn't say she was excited to be back.

"Last time you said that we were locked up in the _Pearl_ ," Violet said, smirking at the memory. "How _far_ we've come."

"Oh, don't be like that, love," Jack said, panting as he slumped to the floor, a hand on his forehead. "We've got to think like… like the whelp!"

"You mean Will?" Violet scoffed, wondering what exactly the little traitor was doing at that very moment. "Let's see… Then we should betray someone, preferably someone we trust, go on some crazy search for our beloved, and do anything we can to save our father."

"I liked you better when you missed me," Jack said, giving her a petulant look, at this time she smiled, a genuine grin. For heaven's sake, why was he always able to make her smile like that?

"I liked _you_ better when we weren't locked in a brig." Violet moved to sit next to him against the bars, putting her head in her hands. Think like Will? She could do that, couldn't she? She racked her brain, trying to think of what the boy would do, but the only thing turning up in her mind was a memory of the first time she'd seen the boy, standing inside _The_ _Faithful Bride_ in Tortuga. "Remember when you were going to use Will for leverage against Barbossa? I wonder if he really thought that-"

"Leverage! That's it!" Jack sprang to his feet and grabbed Violet's hand, pulling her up to stand next to him. "You're a genius, love."

Before Violet could say another word, Jack planted a kiss on her lips before snatching up a huge piece of discarded wood and sticking it by the hinges of the cell door. With one big heave, he pushed downwards on one end of the board and with a loud creak, the door fell to the floor with a _crash_ , the hinges splintering.

"Half-barrel hinges, love!" Jack crowed, and Violet grinned at him, shaking her head in disbelief. "Looks like William was good for something after all."

"I guess he was," Violet agreed, and without a second thought, Jack took her hand, and the two of them headed to the deck of the _Dutchman_ , and straight into the war.

* * *

 **A/N: I can't believe there are only a few more chapters of this story. :( As much as i don't want it to end, I can't wait to give you the ending, and to thank you all for reading this far! I hope all of you are doing well, and that you enjoyed this chapter. As always, thank you so much for your kind reviews! Sending my love!**

 **-Ev**


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